From Here to Europa
by DarkBright Cipher
Summary: Bottles, diapers, cries, pouts, and a whole lot of shenanigans. The next adventure in the life of Noire and Neptune as parents with their daughter Europa in front stage. Sequel to Nine Versions of Purple.
1. Nighttime Pamper

**This will be the main series as of today that will be small stories centered around Europa as she develops into the CPU of the future, however, it's never as easy as that. A bumpy road lies ahead paved with rattles, pasta flinging chaos, and smelly diapers. This story will also contain side chapters that peer into the lives of the CPUs from Ultra.**

**Chapter 1: Nighttime Pamper**

A restless night was in the air. Loud dream shattering wails of an infant girl that could not be left ignored. How could those shouts be ignored? While not only was it a cruel injustice, that little girl had the energy and lungs to power a whole gaming console for hours.

All this took place in a little room decorated with all the love in the world, but across from that room...

"Noire... Noire... Noire..." said a purple-haired girl as she forced open her heavy eyes.

"W-what?" Came the delirious words of her wife, Noire. She had surprisingly fallen asleep fast that night, and she couldn't help but puff her cheeks out at being forced awake.

"Euri is restless tonight, too. Last night was my turn... now it's your turn," yawned Neptune who cutely shifted her body to face away from her wife in victory.

Noire narrowed her eyes at her wife but made no argument. She forced her body to respond to her wishes after hearing Euri's continued cries from both the hallway and the baby monitor.

She expressed a yawn before getting out of bed, and into the dark hallway. A thing to note about Noire, she had on a lavender nightgown with her hair undone from her twin tails.

When Noire reached her daughter's room, she could see Euri working up a storm inside her crib. She was fussy and she wanted the whole world to know that. There was something in that action that made Noire smile.

"Okay, okay, Euri. You got mommy Noire on night duty today," she said playfully. When it came to her bundle of joy, she tended to show a laid back side to her that was even considered rare to Neptune.

While Neptune teased her- and she loved her for that- it made her feel like she should let loose. Euri was a whole other kind of thing. For her daughter, she didn't need to be teased or played around with in order to act overly bubbly. "Let's see what's got you all frustrated," said Noire. She lifted her daughter from the crib and reclined her on her chest with Euri's head resting on her shoulder.

The overly loud cries of Euri went down a few decibels and became more of a grumble.

Noire smiled softly in the darkroom that had a window that let the calm moonlight night in. She grew relaxed at her daughter's soft and fruity skin and scent that was the cause of a nice bath that they gave her early that night. She placed a hand on Euri's pink short hair to further sooth her.

After a minute of pampering her, she gave her a wide smile.

Euri had calmed down and had been looking at Noire with curious red eyes. Noire smiled when she looked at her daughter's black shirt with a heart on it, and pink bottoms that kept her warm at night. "So... your diaper isn't full, and you don't seem to be in pain at all... could you be hungry?"

There was only one way to find out. They both took a trip to the kitchen where Noire expertly made a warm baby bottle with one hand.

"Eat up, and then off to bed," said Noire after taking a seat on the couch to feed Euri. It turned out that she was on the money that her daughter was hungry.

"Jeez, didn't you have a bottle after your bath? You have your momma Neptune's appetite that's for sure. Sigh, I wouldn't have it any other way, honestly." Noire raised a playful eyebrow at the fact that while it's only been about a week since Euri had come home from the hospital, she never left a bottle full of any milk.

Noire could feel sleep trying to creep around her vision. A good well placed pinch managed to keep her up.

After the bottle, she proceeded to lightly hit her daughter's back. She waited for the moment of truth, the moment where she could conclude this little late-night snack.

Euri hiccuped softly which was actually a burp that gave Noire the green light.

"That's a good, girl," she told her in a baby language manner.

Back at Euri's room, Noire played some gentle music and turned on the ceiling mobile that was customized with blue hedgehogs and wacky bandicoots. "Okay, sweetie. You need your rest now," said the CPU mother.

Euri gave her a full-on grumpy stare that made Noire wonder what she was missing. "Oh. Your binky." Noire found the pacifier near the corner of the crib, and after placing it in her daughter's mouth, that did the trick in putting her to sleep.

She stood next to her daughter until she made sure she was off to dreamland. Back to her room, Noire dropped her head on the pillow.

"Sounds like you managed to Nep her fussiness in the butt," said Neptune who didn't open her eyes nor look at her wife as she was perfectly fine from fully waking up.

Noire yawned loudly and wrapped her arms from behind her wife. "She was mostly hungry- kind of reminds me of you."

"Well, she is a growing girl after all. Say... I'm also a little hungry. Want some nachos?"

"Hmm, go to sleep, Neptune. There's time for that in the morning," stated Noire.

**It's short, but I wanted to start slowly and get a feel on what things I want to include in this story. So far, I got some entertaining and funny events down. Feel free to also suggest some of your own wacky scenarios. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!**


	2. Indecisive Heart (Ultra)

**Chapter 2: Indecisive Heart (Ultra Story)**

Ultra Lastation, a nation that had gone through some changes after it had unexpectedly received its second CPU when their goddess had announced her union to Purple Heart.

Over time, Purple Heart, who was also casually called Neptune- it being a personal preference of hers- had won the hearts of the people of Lastation.

She did this by showing them how amazing of a CPU she was by creating good small ideas for games and exquisite ideas for quality of life for the nation.

It was a regular weekday in Ultra Lastation as Neptune sat in her office chair in the joint office of her and her wife. Croire was floating above her on her book, while ironically enough, she was reading a magazine.

Neptune pressed her pen against her cheek while she looked at a dry erase board across the room. "Let's see, let's see, the people are all into shooting games. And Noire is also a big fan of them..." She stood to get a better feel of things; even angling her head at the board.

"More action shooting games? Yeah, that's going to get your new game to be noticed from the sea of others," mocked Croire as she turned the page of her magazine.

"You're right, that's why I'm not going that route. No, what I'm seeing is... a fighting game. Or maybe beat-em-up, oh... a beat-em-up set in a crime world where family, loyalty, and funny shenanigans take place."

Croire stopped reading to look at Neptune with interest. "Sounds intriguing. Please elaborate."

"It will be a fighting game of types, but also an action-adventure type, too. The main guy will be called... um... well, the name's not important right now. The story will be that this gang member gets ten years in the slammer for a crime he didn't commit. When he gets out he learns that a whole huge amount of money was stolen from his respective crime family. Everyone is in an uproar to find it, which leads them to find out that... an orphan girl is somehow tied to the money being stolen. While she could be the key to finding where the money went, the main protagonist takes it upon himself protect her from all who would want to hurt her for the information." She took a stance and did some wild kicks and air punches to further get her point across. "The main guy is to be totally awesome and know how to kick super butt. HYAA! Like a dragon!" She laughed at herself with triumph at her idea.

"An orphan girl, huh? Well, write what you know, hey?" Croire tried to halt the last of her words when her brain had kicked in last minute, and she now wished she didn't say that.

Neptune had every right to feel offended or get mad, but she merely gave that some thought with a finger to her lip, then she smiled at Croire. "I wouldn't know that much of it since I had you from the beginning, " said Neptune that froze Croire in place, regardless of the two allowing themselves to further express what the other meant to them.

Neptune spent the next few hours further ironing out her new game idea with Croire. This game was to be her first fully conceptualized solo idea, and she wanted to get this right not just for Noire, but herself. Croire actually provided different takes on concepts like how the main protagonist should have lots of tattoos on his back, his overall personality, and the type of suit he would wear.

Later on, Croire stretched her arms after Neptune had finalized her last details. "Ah!" Shouted Neptune.

"What now?" Asked Croire.

"Noire and I were going to have our night on the town dinner date today at the Sly Raccoon," said Neptune as she raced to her room to put on some fancier clothes than just a black and purple hoodie.

Neptune rummaged through her other clothes in which she pushed aside about five black dress hoodies until she got to some variety.

"You're going out to have dinner? What's wrong with making food here?" Asked Croire.

"Crostie, you know that Noire and I like to mix it up and go out to eat. "

"You're already married. She doesn't need to keep trying or is this part to butter you up for you twos' late night activities?"

"I... I don't know what you are talking about?" Said Neptune with a shy stare. She hid her head with the pale purple long sleeve shirt she was putting on.

"Really? You two have been awfully active these past few nights alone..."

"Okay. Crostie. I won't lie to you. Noire and I are trying to have a baby."

"B-Baby?! Why? Babies are loud, smelly, and drooling messes. Plus there's no try, you either want a baby or you don't."

Neptune looked down with a hint of depression. "Don't tell that to Noire. Maybe she's figured it out and is hoping that our romantic dates can help bridge that into reality or maybe she believes that her heart is truly not in line with her brain and is second-guessing herself of having a baby-"

"-but it's really you, right? You don't really want a baby do you?" Asked the small fairy.

"You're wrong. I do want one. A little girl running around that resembles Noire- I could just die from the sweetness of it. After seeing little me and her Noire in the clouds about their baby, it put a lot of thoughts for both of us. Every time we have dinner, every time we watch a movie, every time we laugh, and every time we are together, it feels like there is a void with something missing now."

"Then why haven't one of you gotten pregnant yet? This isn't rocket science, Neptune. The shares will resonate with the passion that both of you have once it realizes that you both want it."

"Ah! Look, Crostie, I appreciate the talk but I need to go fast before I'm late for our date!" Shouted Neptune after putting on her jeans. In her thoughts, Croire made all the sense in the world. She was, after all, the one who had all this CPU knowledge, and the purple-haired girl understood that there was an error somewhere that was keeping them from having a baby.

"Neptune!"

Neptune dashed out of the door. "I'll bring you back a plate, Crostie, bye!"

"Ugh, another Nep in my life." She covered her tone with a distaste of the concept, but then her true feelings melted away her front that she had always put before all else. "Oh, well. If anything, it's my job that the little runt doesn't turn out like Neptun's black-haired wife," she said with a muffled laugh that warmed her heart, but she wouldn't admit to that.

**(Sly Raccoon)**

Around the same time, Ultra Noire had sneezed loudly that made a few people give her a quick look. She grabbed some tissue and tried her best to sink into the restaurant chair booth that she was at. She checked her phone with urgency at where her wife was at. After that, she checked that her twin tails were perfect and that her clothes didn't look too bad. Her choice of attire for tonight was a blue jacket with a light blue striped shirt. She also had a black skirt with black stockings and white shoes.

A fair-skinned lady with short black hair that ended to her neck walked up to Noire's table. "Lady Noire, dining with us today by yourself?" She asked politely.

"Hello, Martha. N-No! Come on... it would be pretty sad if I were, haha. Umm, I'm waiting for Neppy to come. We have a date tonight," she said the last part with timid reservations.

"And she isn't here yet? I might as well give her a mouthful and an ear pull for making you wait," said Martha.

"She was probably held up with office work."

"How's she fairing with that?" Asked Martha.

"Really great. She has been mostly working on nation related tasks, but for the first time, she wanted to try her hand at making a game from the ground up."

"A game? She has me interested in what the idea could be."

'You and me both, but I have faith in her that she'll make a spectacular job. While I wait for her, I'll have a rootbeer and for her... a blueberry milkshake!"

"A blueberry milkshake?" Asked Martha with a raised eyebrow.

"I'll know she will get a kick out of that, plus she earned it for being on top of things," responded Noire.

A few minutes later, Martha and Neptune almost collided with each other when they reached Noire at the booth.

"Sorry I'm late- ah!" Cried Neptune who halted her speed to avoid Martha who had lifted her arm to protect the drinks.

"Calm down there, Miss CPU. You're going to ruin your tasty drink your wife ordered," said Martha with a sigh.

"That's a blueberry milkshake!" Said Neptune with stars in her eyes.

"You were awfully late. Was there a problem with the Basilicom?" Asked Noire as a means to pull her wife out of her frantic demeanor or was it a star-struck gaze after seeing the milkshake?

"I guess I was. Sorry, about that."

"It can't be helped. You're here now and that's all that matters." Noire tilted her head at the seat across from her with her body language giving off the ever so uninterested Tsun act that she subconsciously always did.

Neptune smiled and took her seat while she picked up the menu.

"Alright, let's get down to business. What can I get for the both of you?" Asked Martha when she pulled out her notepad with the quickness of a thief and placed her pen mere centimeters away from the paper.

"Hmm, I'll get a small salad, steak, and loaded potatoes," said Noire.

"I'll have a piece of this weeks featured pie, a hamburger with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce- the whole works. And... a plate of dumplings and... and... cheese fries, but don't replace them with the side order of fries that come with the burger- I like to combine them." Neptune looked at Noire who had somewhat wide eyes, and remained silent, then she looked at Martha who stopped writing down on her notepad.

Neptune grew sheepish and cleared her throat. "Throw in a salad too," she said thinking that it might make the situation better.

Both Noire and Martha exploded with joyful laughter at Neptune.

"Neppy, it's fine. This is our date, so order what you'll like."

"I would say you're a growing girl, but an ever-growing appetite is more accurate," said Martha with a smile.

Their food arrived a while later as both of them dug at their orders.

Neptune sipped her blueberry milkshake and sliced herself a piece of her pie that had been topped with whip cream.

Noire couldn't help but softly stare at her wife for a few seconds until she was caught by her wife. "Kyaa, I'm staring, I know. It's just nice to see you kicking back. I know that we haven't had any luck with trying to have a baby and work has been piling up lately."

"Noire... sure we had no luck, but that means we can keep trying," said Neptune with a cheeky smile.

Noire blushed and took a bite of her potatoes to try and hide it. "Always positive, honey. Let's put work, and the baby issue away for now and focus on just us."

Neptune didn't hesitate to agree, however, she knew the deep yearning of how much her wife wanted a baby that she would dare say it exceeded her own. She didn't mean to think this way, but after all the failed attempts and Croire's question directed to her. Could she really not want a baby?

After their wonderful meal, they stepped out of the Sly Raccoon and into the wonderful night air. The activity that surrounded them was the frantic life of Lastation's citizens coupled with the allure of bright lights from shops that created a glittering path to the downtown district.

Noire and Neptune laughed cutely together letting themselves be lost in the moment thanks to the atmosphere that felt very holiday-like, mostly because of large groups of people buying things and enjoying the night air.

They clearly weren't the only couple partaking in the night air, but for them, they were the only ones in their world. After looking into shops, getting their picture taken in a photo booth, and taking a peek at the movie line-up from the posters outside the local movie theater, the night was getting deeper into its cycle that they made their way to Lastation's central park.

"Two big pretzels!" Declared Neptune to the park food vendor who handed her two big soft pretzels. She turned around to face her wife with a beaming smile that resulted in Noire doing a reluctant sigh.

"Didn't we eat just a short while ago?" Declared Noire with a small pout.

"It's a little late-night snack, Noire. Plus we've been working up a sweat from our walk."

Noire laughed at her wife's lazy logic and rested her head on her shoulder. "You big foodie. Just so you know, being a CPU doesn't keep you from getting fat. You'll gain weight and it will go away when you transform, but you'll still have it when you revert. Unless..." Noire pushed her self away and ran to a park bridge that had a river underneath it.

"Unless what?" Said Neptune who looked panicked.

Noire giggled and turned around to face her wife with the faint light of the bridge lantern hitting her face. "Unless you work it out or spend vital share energy transforming again and again," she stared down at Neptune sternly to tell her that the latter wasn't an option.

The purple-haired girl hunched over in regret to show that she was ready to accept going on a diet if she did gain weight.

Noire hugged her for all she was worth because, in the end, she found Neptune's actions cute.

They made themselves comfortable as they watched Lastation's sky glitter with night stars. Neptune tapped on her wife's shoulder to point at the river that had a group of ducks gliding across the water.

"Today was amazing. I'm happy that we had this moment to help us get away from stress," said Noire as she rested her head on her soulmate's shoulder.

Neptune's heart raced with a blush that had formed across her face. She wasted no second when she laid her head to recline on her wife.

"Just imagine, it's going to be hard to get these moments when the baby shows up," said Noire with a dream-like sigh to her words.

Neptune looked at her wife with a saddened face. The conversation with Croire that had been left behind had caught up and taken over her consciousness. "Noire, I need to talk to you about something. I think I know why we haven't had success with having a baby." She removed herself from her wife's warmth that made Noire feel cold inside.

"What do you mean, Neppy?" Asked Noire with concern.

Neptune leaned over the bridge with downcast eyes. "You might think that your love for a baby isn't enough but it is. Your heart wants it, and that's enough."

"Neppy, you sound so detached from these feelings. Neppy... are you saying that you don't want a baby?"

Neptune searched her heart again for an answer that could respond to her inner turmoil. "I don't know. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I don't but look at us. We've been trying and no luck. Hearing you earlier when you said that it would be hard to have our moments together because of the baby, you had this understanding tone in your voice that you knew it wouldn't be a bad thing. We would essentially be trading a good moment for another good moment with our baby being with us."

"Neppy..."

"You don't need to worry about your brain not being in tuned with your heart; it's already in sync. But for me... I don't know, " said Neptune with shame.

"You don't know? That's not a good answer, Neppy. What is it that you are afraid of? I know that you will be a fantastic mother," said Noire.

That word staggered Neptune with a profound sense of understanding to her turmoil. It was as if a song on a radio station had static because it was one channel off. "Mother... wow, that word hit me hard. When I've thought about the baby, I've never really focused on that word that goes with it."

"Neppy..." Asked Noire with confusion.

"Noire, I'm an orphan. You know this already and... and... I don't know what mother really means for me. I never knew my mother at all- heck, a mother's love is something that I don't know what it feels like. It makes me wonder if I'll even be a good mother." She then heard a soft pretzel fall to the ground and felt two arms wrapped around her waist.

"You're wrong, Neppy. A mother's love is... unneeded to be a good mother yourself. You extrude a powerful warmth of friendship, kindness, and playful energy. You also have patience, deep caring, and unrelenting love."

"Is that really enough?"

"Yes, any child would be happy to call you mom. You're so easy to connect with, and you have such a happy radiance that made me fall for you. If those two dorks from the other world feel like they are ready, then I know you and I are. Just know that you won't be alone when you take this path and both of us will be great parents."

Even though she was still afraid, she wanted to match her wife's feelings all the same. "I do, Noire. I still want a kid, and... I'll show her the love of a mother that I never had."

They both kissed under the lantern light of the bridge, and a huge burden that had unknowingly plagued Neptune had been lifted.

A week later, when work had subsided, and Neptune's new game idea had started the development process, they spent a world-shattering night like none they experienced.

Neptune sat on the couch as she waited for her wife who had suddenly run to the bathroom when they awoke in the morning. Neptune twiddled her thumbs in nervousness and she looked at Croire who looked like she didn't get any sleep last night. "So.. how was your night?"

"Bite me, but I'm sure you did enough of that last night," she said with words that Neptune knew she didn't mean.

She then heard her bedroom door open and her wife emerged in her HDD.

"Ah crap," said Croire in a low voice.

"Noire... are you really pregnant?" Said Neptune with tears in her eyes.

"I think so. My stomach feels like it was pushed off a hill." Black Heart looked at Croire as if once she confirmed it, it would all be real.

"Why are you both looking at me? You know the answer already if she puked her guts out and can't revert," proclaimed Croire.

Neptune shouted with joy at the top of her lungs as she charged at her wife and held her by her sides, as she spun her around. "We're are going to be parents!"

"Kyaa! Don't spin me or I might hurl again," urged Black Heart as her face turned a little green.

"Ah! My bad. Are you okay?"

"Yeah... just give me a second. I'm pretty sure I have nothing else to throw up, but I fear that my guts might come out instead. "

"You gotta love that baby nausea," said Croire who smiled at the sight of Black Heart in disarray.

"I can't believe it." Neptune let her tears out because she knew that the share energy had deemed them ready.

"Believe it, honey. We're going to have a little Neppy running around soon," said Black Heart.

"I would like to think it will be a little Noire. The share energy... maybe this is for the best that you would be the one to be pregnant."

"The fact that we were allowed this means that your desire in your heart outweighs your fears. Neppy... no mother becomes the perfect mother when their baby is born. It takes patience and time with a great deal of love. I know that both of us have all three of those."

"Yeah... you're right."

"Pfft, Neptune is more like the dad in this situation now, so you got nothing to worry about being a mom, " said Croire.

"I'm so happy right now that I won't knock you out for that joke," said Black Heart.

"Let's all go out for pancakes," shouted Neptune.

"That might be a landmine for me but I need food in my stomach regardless. Come, Croire. If you don't then, I'll know that you don't care about this family," said Black Heart.

Neptune curiously gazed at her life long fairy friend to see her response.

"W-what?! I... I... feel like I'm losing with any answer I give. Grr, I'll go but only for the pancakes!" Shouted Croire but her statement wasn't taken seriously.

**I wasn't sure if I would be able to get this one done but the ending started to fall into place. I hope you all enjoy this second upload and now I need to get going with the rest of the day. Happy Thanksgiving and a happy day for everyone!**


	3. A Date With Santa

**Chapter 3: A Date With Santa**

It was that time of year again for the land of Gamindustri; the time of snow and presents but most importantly...

"... Nepmas is here!" The scene was a shopping mall with its interiors filled with eager shoppers ready to line-up their carts with presents for their loved ones, and the one who shouted this declaration was none other than Neptune. It was cold around this time, so Neptune had a purple and dark blue jacket with black pants, and Noire had a vibrant red coat with black pants.

She and Noire, along with their daughter, Euri, were out and about in order to stock up on holiday presents. "Neptune, you should really do your in-door voice instead of sounding like a crazed lunatic, " said Noire who was pushing the stroller with a bundled up Euri inside.

"But Noire... It's the holiday joy! The Nepmas ghost compels me with Nepmas so close."

"Well, you keep that up and mall security is going to be crashing down on you, " said Noire.

"Don't be such a blacky heart, my love. Remember that this is Euri's first Nepmas."

"Nepmas is here!"

Noire turned her head randomly in a direction as she saw a group of kids shouting the same thing as her wife had said.

Neptune giggled at the sight and Noire sighed in defeat. "You know, since we're married and our nations are one now, why don't we rename it?" Asked Noire.

Neptune did a soft hand flick to show that she wasn't a fan of that idea. "Noire, we've talked about this. East Nepstation is called Holimark and over here in the west, it's called Nepmas, " said Neptune with a goofy tongue sticking out.

"But wouldn't it be cool if it was changed to Noiremas? Or do you think my name is too dumb for that?" Noire could see the little gears in Neptune's head spinning and not even her HDD mindset could help her formulate a better response.

"Now Noire... Umm... Let's not be too hasty on that subject. The shell shock of the people having to adapt to that new name might be too much for the average citizen, so let's just keep the name as it is, " said Neptune with a cheeky wink.

Noire sighed at her wife's weak excuse even though the people were okay with the nation's name change among other things. "You can be such a terrible liar, Neptune. Let's just begin our Holimark shopping, " declared Noire as a means to spite her wife at the end that earned her a puffed-up cheek from Neptune.

Neptune knowing that she deserved that, let her have her way and the both of them pulled out their secret list. They were extra careful to keep a good distance from the other seeing what the other had on paper.

"Okay, I'll take cute little Euri with me and we'll meet up here in a few hours, " said Neptune. She inched her way to her daughter with wiggling fingers at the cute baby clothes she could get for Nepmas.

"Hey, hold on! W-we both know how you can get when it comes to fighting over items that run out quickly. In that department, Nepgear herself even called you a shop warrior who doesn't rest until the best deal is secured, " said Noire.

"Your point, honey, " said Neptune sweetly.

"My point is that that laser-focused mindset is going to cause you to neglect Euri. What if you lose her in a crowd or she gets hurt?"

"Eh?! That will never happen! Plus, Nowa, aren't you the queen of the deal? You do try and be the business master in all forms of haggling or do you want to call those negotiations like the business girl that you are?"

"I... I... Okay, I just want Euri to come with me that's all. She makes me feel relaxed knowing that I have my eye on her and it's not like I don't trust you, Neptune. Really... I just want to be with her, " said Noire who was madly blushing.

"Same, honey. I want to be with her, too. Let's let her decide. Whoever gets her attention will take her with them." Neptune stood on one side facing Euri's stroller, and Noire was ultimately on the other.

Euri, who had been enjoying the moving pace of the stroller looked up at her two parents with half-closed eyes. She looked between both of them who were trying their hardest to incite a reaction from her.

Neptune made funny faces and did jokes with her jacket like tucking her arms so that her sleeves were flapping in the wind.

Noire stood there for a moment until her brain kicked in. She reached into the diaper bag from behind the stroller and pulled out a pre-made baby bottle.

Euri having enough knowledge from associating a bottle for food provoked her to stretch her arms out at Noire.

"Hey, no fair. It's getting close to lunchtime already... and you used that as your trump card!"

Noire was ashamed of her actions but held firm and true to them. She took a firm grip on the bottle and powered through her blushing face. "You did call me a business girl. I'm only using the tools that I have available to secure the outcome that I want."

Neptune giggled and shook her head. "Using food to woo a Nep. And that's why I married you."

"Idiot! As if that's the only reason we got married!" Shouted Noire who had been pushed over the edge.

After further embarrassing herself from the outburst in the middle of a crowded mall, Noire stood in front of a shopping store mirror with a red shirt she was holding in front of her. "This shirt looks great for our Nepmas dinner, " said Noire to Euri who looked on with confused eyes. "Yes, I think I know just the outfit with this shirt. Oh, I bet momma Neptune is going to like this when we go to aunt Uni and Nepgear's place again this year."

Euri still looked confused as she shifted in her stroller to adjust to one of the only understandings that she knew; comfort.

Noire's gaze softened as she gave her daughter a better look. Her daughter had on a blue jacket, pink gloves, black bottoms, with pink wool socks. She checked her surroundings and inched closer to the stroller. "What do you think I should give momma Neptune?" She said with an added baby-like tone to her words to catch Euri's attention.

Euri laughed and took up the bottle that she had put down next to her earlier on. "You're stuck too, huh? Hmm... I wonder..." She looked around the clothing store she was in to see if maybe she could get some items that could interest her little sister or sister-in-law. After doing a double check on the things she had gathered, she made her way to the cash register. It was at this moment that her mental fortitude against being embarrassed was going to be challenged.

At the line, there were an odd number of ladies, ranging from different ages physically close to her, and other older ones. They all gasped when they spotted their CPU lady with her newborn child.

"Oh my goddess, is that Lady Noire partaking in common civilian Nepmas shopping?" Said a breathy elegant voice from the line.

"She is... and... and... she's also with Lady Euri, too, " said a small girl that looked to be with the elegant lady- perhaps a guardian or mother.

Two girls that appeared to be teens and had on school uniforms stood in shock at the lucky opportunity to see their goddess out and about with her daughter. "Black Heart herself is here with her daughter!" Said one of the schoolgirls just as excitedly as she rapidly pulled out her phone to ready herself for a picture.

"Not before I ask her for her autograph, " said the other school girl who darted her hand to her school bag to pull out a notebook.

The last one was a woman that looked self-important who was adorned with a professional camera, a sash across her chest that held personal mementos of her accomplishments in patch form, and a brown press hat.

Noire instantly became fearful of the barrage of crazed ladies that were coming her way.

The first ones to reach her were the two girls that grew giddy with excitement once they laid eyes on Euri. "She's so beautiful, my lady! Like a little pink bunny!" Said one of the girls.

"Pink bunny is right, especially with those adorable red eyes of hers," said the other one.

Noire's face continued to turn red from having her daughter's eyes, and to that extent, her own eyes as being referred to bunny eyes. Noire flinched to her left as the elegant lady moved into her personal space with the little girl in her arms. They both melted of adorableness at the sight of Euri.

Euri, personally, started to feel a new sense she never experienced which was fear. The intrinsic senses that were still new to her told her to be on her guard at all these new faces that were blocking the only face she associated with as safe.

"She is a rather exquisite beaut, my lady. There is no doubt that she will be a fine CPU of the highest of caliber."

"T-thank you..." said Noire with a sweatdrop. She would have no doubt been prideful of the praise if they had allowed her the space to adjust to the swarming.

Lady Noire... can your daughter transform yet?" Asked the innocent question of the little girl that looked to be about five.

Noire smiled at the question. "No... not that Neptune and I are aware of. She's still growing and all in due time."

"Lady Noire! I'm with Gamindustri Informer," said the lady with the brown hat and professional camera as she held out a card with her name and rank.

"Oh, you're one of those," sighed Noire when she remembered a reporter from the same company that reported on them in some dance event when she and Neptune were still dating.

"And a Merry Nepmas to you too." She brazenly said completely ignoring what Noire meant. "It appears that fate is allowing me to redeem myself after losing my star baby face to my rivals," she said behind a smile that held true frustrations.

"Your rivals? Aren't you a newspaper reporter?"

"Yes, and my current assignment is to photograph twelve different babies for Gamindustri Informer's upcoming yearly calendar. I had the cute baby winner of the little miss pudding pageant but her mom decided to jump ship and go to Calendarsmiles after they gave her a better deal. As if there is a better deal than just being in Gamindustri Informer's yearly calendar," she finished with prideful tears in her eyes.

"Eh? It looks like she was looking out for her daughter's best interest. I can't blame her if she went to Calendarsmiles, they do excel for what they are known for in making a wide variety of calendars," said Noire.

"Their academy boys collection is my favorite that I get every year," said one of the schoolgirls.

"Gamindustri's top elegant sceneries is where the true beauty is at," said the elegant lady.

"The cute doggies of Gamindustri is the best one, " said the little girl.

The Gamindustri Informer reporter gritted her teeth and covered her eyes to refuse this notion. "My lady, how could you not root for the underdog in this situation? The task of making our calendar that's baby-themed for this coming year falls on my hands. Now I ask of you, let me have the honor of having your baby on the calendar."

Noire gasped without knowing what to say. She quickly got a positive reaction from all the people that had surrounded her. "Y-you want my baby to be in the calendar?"

"Yes, but don't take it so lightly. My lady, your daughter- as she should be- will have the highest of honor of being my star for December. She will be the poster girl of both Nepmas and the New Year!"

The women's words were perfectly crafted like honey. Honey that produced a prideful gleam from Noire. "A... star, you say?"

"Yes, I have to take the photos now so that I can e-mail them to my partner that will edit them to represent their respective months."

Noire truly was thinking hard about this and it didn't help that the peer pressure of the people around her was saying yes.

"Okay... I'll do it, but you better get my daughter's good side or else I'll be very upset."

"Oh thank you, my lady. To think my misfortune would turn once I called it quits and did my Nepmas shopping, " she said with a relieved smile.

About an hour later, Noire had finished up her list of presents. She had to juggle some of her bags by putting them In a pouch underneath the stroller seat and holding the rest with one hand. "Sigh, I should have told Uni to tag along, and make her carry some of these things," she said to herself.

Euri was sound asleep after she had downed her bottle.

"Hey!"

Noire looked forward and saw her wife enjoying some food near a table. There were a good amount of bags near her feet that were intentionally black to keep whatever they had a secret.

"You didn't wait for me?" Asked Noire with a pout when Neptune texted her to head to the food court.

"Sorry, the noodles were getting cold and my stomach was rumbling something fierce."

Noire placed Euri toward Neptune and went to one of the food fronts to buy noodles like her wife.

"So, did anything eventful happened?" Said Neptune after Noire had sat down and started to eat.

Noire almost choked on her noodles and gave Neptune a small innocent smile in response. "As a matter of fact, I had a lot of people wanting to see Euri. They were like a crazed group of music fans when they see their favorite artist."

"Wowie, I hope they didn't invade your personal space too much. I had to fend some off with a stick when I took Euri out for a stroll to the park when you had that giant deadline."

"Ugh, I should be flattered that they love our little girl so much, but I wish they could be a little civilized. Even now, I can see people trying to glance at Euri as they pass."

"Yeah, it's been about two months since she's been born and we have been sheltering her from the public eye, so it's natural for them to get their eye full when they get the chance," said Neptune.

"I suppose. Say... I'm glad that you brought up the fact that she's been sheltered. Don't get mad, but I entered her in Gamindustri Informer's yearly calendar," said Noire.

Neptune looked at Noire with wonder and hardly any anger. "Oh, how did you managed that?"

"It's a long story but this girl came toward me and asked me if Euri could fill her empty spot for the baby of December. Sigh, when I think about it now, she wooed me with the glamour of Euri being the main star that would end with December."

Noire carefully looked at her wife who had a giant happy face. "Oh. Nowa!" The loud yell caused Euri to stir with a flinch. "That has to be one of the sweetest gifts you could give me and the nation. For them to see their little goddess in diapers leading the new year as little December is too great. Just imagine the shares and joy they will get from this."

"That's true, yes... this was a good move for the people to have a better image of Euri and to get shares along with it," laughed Noire. In honesty, her business mind didn't really see that outcome, and her mommy mind pretty much only cared about bragging rights that her little girl was the star of something.

After the meal, they were about to leave when Neptune decided to check out the Nepmas decorations that were centered in the middle of the mall. The surrounding area was a sight to behold as a giant sign in bold letters that spelled out, Santa's Workshop, was displayed at the very front.

Green Nepmas tress decorated with the finest of ornaments and brightest of lights covered the sides of the entranceway that ended at the back where a large throne-like chair had been placed, and behind it, a constructed sturdy house.

Neptune ran to the line that had formed at the entrance and she gazed at all the lights that hanged around every corner of the surrounding area. She crouched down to feel the soft cotton that simulated snow." Noire, we must see Santa. I can't believe we almost forgot."

"Santa? I see. For Euri, right? Or is this something that you want for yourself?"

"Nah, for Euri silly. Though, if Nepgear were here, this would also be for her, too," giggled Neptune.

Noire blushed with the confusion that Nepgear would still believe in Santa. If that was the case, she hoped that Nepgear would know better than to sit on Santa's lap. It would be unsightly for a girl of her age to still do something like that, and she wouldn't know how Uni would take it. "You're going to have to talk to her about the truth of Santa eventually," said Noire with a sigh.

"Maybe but not today."

A few minutes went by until thirty minutes had passed them. They were well into the large line and their journey was already committed to seeing it through.

Noire felt overwhelmed by the tight space that everyone was being funneled through and with the bags and stroller, it made it a nightmare.

The cherry on top was that Euri had awoken and started to cry to sound out her displeasure.

"N-Neptune! I think she just pooped," said Noire in a whisper.

"Say what? Darn, we are only three people away until it's our turn."

"Never mind that. We can't even turn back now unless we go forward and take the exit to our right, " said Noire.

"Looks like we need to perform an emergency change," said a steadfast Neptune.

"Now? Here?"

"There's no other way. She's going to get her bottom all rashy and she's going to smell up the joint. Noire... get the diaper bag," said Neptune.

They turned the stroller around so that the people in the back of them couldn't see what was going on. Noire had no choice but to get in front of Neptune to block the three people that were in front of them since she was the tallest.

"Are you almost done? And please try to not get the stroller dirty, " said Noire with uneasiness to the whole event.

"It's done," Neptune held up a rolled-up diaper with a triumphant gleam in her eyes like a gold miner digging up the first batch of gold of the day.

Neptune put the diaper in a zip-lock bag and shoved it in the diaper bag.

"Make sure that thing isn't touching the small soft chewable cookies or the juice box for that matter," urged Noire.

"Check and check, Nowa. See... we got this in the bag," smiled Neptune. She took out a small bottle of disinfectant to apply to her hands knowing that Noire might give her a dirty look if she didn't.

Noire's brow twitched from that awful pun her wife made. Noire fixed her daughter up in the stroller and gave her a small soft chewable cookie that was small enough to be eaten in one whole bite without the use of teeth, and soft enough that it would go down without any problems.

"Those little cookies are so awesome, Noire. To think that our little Euri can eat solids at only two months."

"Well, babies can start eating as soon as four months, and when the cookies I made a week back were too soft, it got me thinking. I talked to Dr. Cardian about it and we ended up finding a great recipe for soft baby cookies. Normally, she would not advise it for Euri's age yet but... well... do you remember what she said about Euri's growth?"

"Hmm... I do, she said that her growth was very strange indeed. Like, she felt like she was internally slightly older than what she actually looks like. Freaky indeed."

"Yeah, she did the check-up twice and she assured us that it sounded more strange than it actually was. Lots of babies mature fast but for Euri... it's different."

"Nowa?"

"Jeez, I'm worrying too much. I can sense that Euri is very smart and she's just silently observing the world while she retains it all. Croire is also keeping her mouth shut when I call her. All she says is that Euri is normal and she's just doing what CPU babies do."

Noire felt at the time that her daughter, Europa could sense her worries and she gave her parent a huge giggling smile accompanied by saliva. This made Noire smile brightly.

"Next in line! Ho ho ho!" The shouts of the Mall Santa brought both Noire and Neptune out of their deep thoughts.

"Did that sound like someone we know?" Asked Noire. Her question was answered when they spotted Compa who was dressed in an elf costume with pointy ears.

Compa widened her eyes as soon as she spotted Neptune and Noire.

"Iffy, it's Nep-Nep and Noire." She directed her attention to the mall Santa that had waved the little boy and his family goodbye that had been in front of Neptune and Noire.

"W-What? Nep is here?!" IF flinched that caused her fake white beard to dangle from her face. Luckily, she was able to fix it before she caused an explosion of crying children to ensue. "Phew, that was close. I hate to ruin these kids' illusion of Santa."

"Wow, is that Iffy? This is a huge and wonderful surprise," smiled Neptune.

"Hey, keep it down. I'm Santa right now and you should address me as such."

"Oh, my bad. So... Santa, what made you decide to put on your fancier Santa digs?" Said Neptune with a wink.

Santa (IF) sighed tiredly, however she did understand what her friend was saying. "Hmm... well, West Nepstation's guild has this thing where they give back to the people for all their hard work and networking they do to provide the guild agency with leads to monster sightings. I don't really pay much attention to it, but a guild buddy of mine whose tall, big, and has a white beard was originally going to do this gig. To make a long story short, an eggplant rider threw its eggplant lance at my buddy when we decided to take a break from tracking a cluster of delinquent cats. I only wish he didn't get hit in the knee when that happened, " she said as she made sure that what she said went over the kids' heads if they did happen to overhear.

"Ouch, those eggplant riders are the worst, I tell you what," declared Neptune.

"Well, Santa was a great partner and both of them got back here fast to go to the hospital. Along the way, they made a promise that if he died, then she would take up the mantle of Santa."

"But he didn't die and I still got stuck with this gig. Anyway, ho ho! What can I do for you two today?" Santa (IF) seamlessly changed demeanors to her Santa persona. Her eyes lit up when she spotted the small head of pink hair that rested in the CPU parents' stroller. "Is that who I think it is?" Both she and Compa expressed an overjoyed reaction.

Noire picked up Euri carefully and rested her daughter on Santa's (IF's) lap. "You two haven't had the time to spend with her, so here's a reintroduction. This is Europa-"

"Also known as Euri!" Said Neptune.

"Yes, Euri... we saw you on the day you were born. Forgive us if we haven't come around more often," said a sincere Santa (IF) to a wide-eyed Euri.

Euri didn't understand these unfamiliar faces and brought on the waterworks in an attempt to return to her warm chair piloted by her parents.

"She can be rather shy- she gets that from her daddy," remarked Neptune who held up a rattle to help calm Euri down.

Noire clearly looked furious, yet made no objections since she didn't want to make a scene.

Santa (IF) laughed heartily with the power to simulate the embodiment of Santa Clause. "There's no reason for tears little Euri." She grabbed a candy cane from Compa and inserted it to the crying girl's mouth.

Euri instantly calmed down and focused on the sweet candy that she had in her mouth.

"Wow, sweet move, Santa," said Neptune with stars in her eyes hoping that she might get one too.

"Normally, this is the part where I tell you what you want for Nepmas, but... I believe I know exactly what you want. You want to spend your very first Nepmas with the people that love you. I can very much do that for you," said Santa (IF) with a pearly white smile that made Euri smile.

For Euri, this action from this red-suited person made her feel the same feeling she got when she was around her parents.

That day, Euri intrinsically harbored a warm spot for the red and white-beard person.

**I don't know If I was able to express it with IF's words but she basically said that she and Compa would be joining everyone for Nepmas. I had this cute idea of a mall Santa scene for Euri and I think I was able to capture it well. Plus, I wanted to mix it up and make it feel different compared to the first chapter of NVOP that felt like the same idea of them being in a mall and going to Uni and Nepgear's place- which they're, but I didn't want to make it a focus. **

**Sorry for the rambling. I hope everyone has a happy holiday and for you all to stay safe. Side note, since I took a while to crank out the last chapter for NVOP, this chapter takes place in December to align it to the current time year. Euri pretty much was born around September and thus is around two months old. It's something that helps me plan for future chapters and it might matter for a little bit depending on if I see a reason to keep it close to real-world time.**

**I had hoped to have my stories from the other fandoms out already, but I had to delay them with the holiday season taking up most of my spare time. **


	4. Bubble Panic

**Hello everyone! I got good news in the form that I finally got myself another computer after my old one finally kicked it. It feels great being able to comfortably type and it got me more motivated to write now. This one is a little short, but I found it goofy while writing it. Hope you all enjoy it.**

**Chapter 4: Bubble Panic**

Nepmas had come and gone, and the CPUs now faced a new year at their doorstep.

"Scrubby dub dub, two scrubs in a tub!" The melodious tunes of a purple-haired girl with rolled-up sleeves filled the bathroom. Aside from the tunes, bubbles also filled the room with their transparent rainbow color reflecting in the light.

Neptune marveled at the bubbles that floated across her face. It was important to note that she wasn't the only one in the room. Her wife was kneeling with her as they both washed their little girl from head to toe inside a baby washtub inside their regular tub.

Euri actively looked all over the room with curious eyes. Her whole body, minus the face, was encased in heavy bubbles that made her look like she was in a cocoon.

"Neptune, get serious. I think this might be too many bubbles for anyone's own good," proclaimed Noire. A swarm of bubbles moved passed Neptune and toward Noire. She had little time to react when one landed in her eye. "Ah! That stings!" She whimpered with one eye closed.

"Sweetie! You want me to give your eye a blow?" Asked Neptune kindly.

"Y-yeah, just make sure your hands are free of suds."

Neptune blew softly in her wife's eye to reduce the irritation that she had suffered. "There, all better?"

"Much better." Noire noticed the empty soap bottle that laid discarded near her wife's knees. She picked up the bottle to see the label. "I don't believe for a second the this is irritation-free!"

Neptune had her attention to her daughter as she hummed sweetly to make sure her daughter was being entertained. "It doesn't seem to be bothering Euri."

One good look at the little one could tell that she was easily entertained by her mother's humming and the sight of floating bubbles in the air.

"It's all fun and games for her until it gets into her eyes. I say we finish this up now." Noire filled up a container of water, and Neptune angled her daughter to avoid the water from bothering Euri.

Euri approved of the delicate actions from her parents with a loud giggle that made Noire and Neptune beam brightly.

All was good when Noire gave her daughter another look. "Huh? Neptune, is it me or is Euri looking a little red in the face?" Asked Noire.

Neptune lowered herself to Euri's eye level to see that her expression looked bothered and focused. "What gives, Eu? Is the water a little too warm?"

Euri's eyes looked pained for only a second until her expression dropped. At the same time, non-soap bubbles had formed behind the CPU in diapers."

"Oh…" responded Neptune with wonder.

"Ah, crap! Don't tell… don't tell me…!" Noire's reaction was the highest and her panic was surely reinforced when a small brown object had floated and remained still on the water. "SHE…she!" It was like a dogoo had wrapped its jelly-like body around her neck and stopped her from finishing the sentence.

Neptune on the other hand, looked at the object from a different perspective, along with stars in her eyes. "Her first solid poop!" Shouted Neptune with all her might that passing civilians at street level could have probably heard. She wasted no time in running out of the bathroom leaving Noire with a pale face.

Noire was stunned at the turn of events and did what came to mind first. She immediately grabbed a blue towel and picked up her daughter from the quickly contaminating water. "No- no- no, we don't do that in the tub," she said with a frantic voice to her daughter who couldn't possibly understand the reason for the concerned tone.

Neptune blasted back into the room with a big camera around her neck.

"What are you doing?!" Asked Noire with her eyes still wild and her nerves still high.

"Memories, my dear. Memories!"

"Huh?" Replied Noire.

"This is her first poop. Her first solid poop. I want to record this so that we can never forget."

Noire looked at her wife as if she pulled out a pudding cup from her shoe. "Are you serious! You take that photo and she's never going to forgive you, especially if you bring it up every year like some old mother when their kid comes to visit with someone important with them."

"Ah, don't be like that. Hey, Euri, is it okay if I take the photo?" she said with a baby-like tone that instilled joy into her daughter. "See… she's totally fine with it."

"She's too young to understand the gravity of this humiliation. No kid wants to be reminded of… of… this!"

"To bad. You can't change this Nep-mindset. You might be against this today, but when she's older, you and I are going to look back fondly on this," she said with a kick in her step and a snap of the camera.

Unable to change her wife's mind, Noire defeatedly stepped out of the bathroom to let Neptune deal with the little mess that Euri made. The last thing she saw was Neptune putting on gloves to tackle the mess at hand.

Noire looked down at her daughter who remained uncaring of the situation. "Don't worry, if she ever tries to pull up that photo, I'll throttle her until she puts it away." This vow would spare her daughter the pain of embarrassment.

**This chapter is a little short mostly to get back in the swing of things after finally getting myself another computer. Also, I've been more in the mood to write my new Azur Lane story that I recently put out. For those who are interested in an Azur Lane story, check it out on my Pen name link. My next chapter has already been decided and it's going to be my second Ultra chapter with Uzume and Ultra Vert being the key characters.**

**I had a few reservations about putting this one out, and after giving it some thought, I decided on going for it. A little goofy Nep time is always a blast. Plus, this is a side of Neptune that I'm going to bring out in which she becomes a photo junkie and is always ready to capture memories.**


	5. Orange and Green (Ultra)

**It's been a while since I updated this story. I deeply apologize for that as my brain started to form an Azur lane story that intrigued me to write. Every time I sat down for some writing, I ended up typing more for that story. It's time to get back onto the Neptunia grind as I still have more stories to tell. I started to slowly get back into the swing of things, so this chapter might be a little clunky.**

**Chapter 5: Orange and Green (Ultra Story)**

Ultra Leanbox, a nation that had been fated to fall into obscurity with the evolving times and the nations undergoing drastic changes.

Ultra Planeptune had been destined to be tied to Ultra Lowee after the CPU of their respective nations had announced to the world that they had been going steady toward a joined future. For the time, the people didn't know how far Lady Plutia and Lady Blanc were in their relationship with the overactive theories ranging from mere handholding to unspeakable kinks that laid behind closed doors. The only solid piece of evidence that they could gauge their relationship was the undeniable fact that they had combined their consoles together before they even got married.

Of course, since they weren't married, and they also weren't joined by the sacred CPU ritual revealed by Croire, they didn't bask in the perks of married life like longer relevancy and shared fate from the people where if one person had their fate placed in Blanc, then Plutia would get it too. Also, they couldn't have a daughter of their own because of their non-union.

They did gain the perk of having their nation put under the limelight that earned them a respective healthy portion of migrating people from other nations and settlements.

This migration had caused Leanbox to suffer as Vert's land had seen the most notable shift.

The troubles didn't stop there as Lastation's CPU had announced that she had secretly gotten married to a mysterious purple-haired girl that was the talk of the nation for a while. After people were able to hear this strange girl's desires to further improve Lastation and work hard to earn the title of Lastation goddess, everyone had accepted her, and the nation also found itself growing from migrators.

This was another blow dealt for Leanbox. The CPU of Leanbox had not thrown in the towel just yet, but her economy and people were going through hard times as businesses had started to either close or move to the other prosperous nations.

Vert was facing the end of the rope that she continued to bravely ignore as a panicking CPU would have never been able to turn around the unfortunate events.

To this day, she is grateful that her worries were answered in a wonderful bundle of orange sunshine that had shot straight through her heart. She found herself bless that it was love and adoration that she saw first in her orange sunshine instead of a scapegoat for herself.

She was now married to her wife, Uzume, a CPU from another dimension that also felt like she had reached the end of her rope. Together, while unconventional, they agreed to marry each other to preserve their life and Vert's nation.

A marriage built on an uphill battle of falling in love after they had gotten married was a strange experience, to say the least, however, in time, Uzume had grown to fully allow herself to fall in love with the woman that not only saved her life but brightened her heart to another level.

Four people stood on grassland that extended far out. One of these four people was Uzume, the red-haired CPU of Leanbox. She gazed at the sun that presented the day with a promise of warmth and happiness. She was joined by her lifelong fish friend, Umio, and her tall blond wife, Vert.

Her loving wife had hooked her arm together with Uzume as they exchanged a flirty look at each other.

"So… what do you'll think?" Came the question of a blond-haired girl with a yellow and black coat to the married couple of Leanbox.

All four of them gave the lush green landscape one more glance, and while they did that, Uzume and Vert couldn't help themselves as they also stared romantically at each other again.

Peashy caught wind of this and puffed her cheeks in frustration. "Hey, Bert! Uzi! I'm talking to y'all!"

The married couple finally stopped doing loving looks at each other to address the yellow-haired girl. "Well, I think this is a marvelous spot for you to construct your nation, Peashy," said Vert.

"Totally, the land is nice and flat, and you got mountains protecting it from the left and right, so monster attacks should only be a concern for the south part of your nation," replied Uzume.

"Those meanie monsters better think twice of even setting half a mile into my borders or else I'll turn them into stew."

"Eh? Why stew? That's kind of an odd thing to say and you might as well say a nice fine powder," replied Uzume with a sweatdrop.

"I want to make them into stew to show you how much my cooking skills have improved," said Peashy with a wide grin.

Vert uncontrollably laughed with a hand covering her mouth much to the shock of her red-haired wife.

"Ah! Wait, hold on, monster stew is not a good food dish. Trust me on this as I once had to dabble in a stew just like that. Ugh, just the memory of the first bite had me licking Umio's fishy scales just to overpower the horrible taste."

Umio politely chuckled softly at the memory. "Oh, I do remember that. It feels nice and a little concerning that I taste better than a monster," joked Umio.

"Yeah well, we were lucky to run into a decently stocked convenience store after that little dramatic moment," fired back Uzume.

"Yes, very lucky, if we didn't, then plan B would have been the rock stew for that night's dish," said Umio.

Peashy stood engaged in the active banter between the red-haired girl and the floating fish. "You were a bum?" She spatted with the first thing that came to mind.

"Huh?! I was a survivor, not a bum," yelled back Uzume that further resulted in Vert laughing harder.

"H-honey… a little help here," said Uzume who felt without an ally.

"Alright… Peashy, Uzume here doesn't like to talk about her past but she wasn't a bum. Where she came from there were a lot of bad people that made life for her and her friends very hard. I find her nomad days to be very alluring to that of a resourceful person."

"Oh, okay. Resourceful Uzume, not bum Uzume," happily said Peashy.

"I can live with that title… does sound pretty cool and reliable now that I think about it," said Uzume with an accepting nod.

"Peashy, if you don't mind me asking, but what's with the sudden interest in land real estate?" Asked Umio.

"This is for Pee's future! I finally gave the green light for Plut and Blanc to get married!" She yelled with excited energy.

"She's pretty much in the same position I was in when Noire and Nepsy finished the inner walk trial that granted them to safely get married," said the redhead to her fish friend.

"Oh, that was a very brave and grown-up thing to do, Peashy. But I thought that you couldn't create a nation after you already associated with Planeptune," said Umio.

Peashy shook her head too aggressively at the statement. "Histy said that I'm special like older Neptuna when she got to be a CPU even though she shouldn't have been. I'm special where I have Planeptune's connection and a second connection that lets me pick up where I last left off, like a save game."

Vert nodded cheerfully. "That is correct. Peashy had a nation to herself when she became a CPU, but there were a lot of bad people involved with it that hindered it from actually becoming a practical nation."

"Yeah! Now Pee can have her own nation and it can be the most pract… practic… al- what Bert said! And for my first- hard P word that I can't say- declaration, there will be a play place in every corner! It's going to have a ball pit, countless slides, monkey bars, horsies, and much more!"

"Wait, she can't say practical but can say 'declaration' without tripping over herself. Huh!? You're going to have a what in every corner?!" Shouted Uzume when she finally caught wind of it

"A play place, a place where every kid can play and have fun, Miss Uzume."

"I see, Peashy, perhaps we should keep those to a minimum for the time being. What you should focus on are standard common buildings that every nation cannot go without. Places like police stations, schools, food markets, fire stations, and homes," replied the blond CPU of Leanbox.

"It would really help people in deciding if they want to migrate to your nation, young Peashy," replied Umio.

"Hmph, okay… Pee did invite you all for advice on building my nation after all."

"Good save there, Vertsy. Okay, if we want to be done before the daylight is gone, we should get a move on!"

"Okay!" Peashy activated her HDD that turned her into Yellow Heart. The next few hours were spent in a draining process of building and destroying when Yellow Heart would make an error in her architecture. Every few buildings that were successfully created were then followed by a random play place that earned a stern look from Vert.

Uzume helped Yellow Heart in getting the key buildings in a reasonable location so there wouldn't be five hospitals or three supermarkets so close to each other, there was competition, and then there was the clutter of all the chaos.

When the construction started heating up, Uzume had to go into HDD to avoid random buildings that raised below her, and basically left her in rooftops.

When everything looked in order, one building was left to be summoned. "Wowie, Peashy, your whole nation has that awesome pristine look to it that will totally turn heads," cheerfully laughed Orange Heart as her personality had drastically shifted.

Vert who had also gone into HDD, had placed her arms around her wife while she rested her chin on her shoulder. "Indeed, that this nation of yours will certainly be the talk of Gamindustri, but do keep in mind that it was Uzume's little architectural brain that allowed this nation to radiate like this," stated Green Heart.

Orange Heart blushed profusely as she scratched her head. "Vertsy, don't be mean, Peashy was like totally the sculptor of all of this. The only super-duper important building left is your Basilicom," cheered Orange Heart.

"My Basilicom?" Asked Yellow Heart with a sudden fear that crept in her heart.

"Why yes. The Basilicom is the brain of any nation that oversees all affairs and economical endeavors related to the CPU's nation."

"She's right, little Peashy. You are clearly the heart of the nation, but you need its brain too for a healthy nation," said Umio.

"Wowie, both of you are so on the nose on that it's funny. Peashy, there is no wrong way to making your Basilicom. It's a representation of your desires and feelings from inside you. It can be tall like little Neptuna's Basilicom or it can be low to the ground with jagged edges like our Noire's Basilicom."

Yellow Heart floated in the air while she gave it her all to produce an image in her mind. She snapped her fingers in triumph as she raised her hand to summon a massive building in the center of her nation.

Both Green Heart and Orange Heart grew bewildered at the imposing building that hid them from the sun in the sky.

"Kyaa! You like totally made a play place!" Declared Orange Heart.

This building was a rectangular structure of about three floors in height. Its design pallet was an embodiment of a rainbow as different sections of the building walls had a different color to them. In areas where it was supposed to have scenic windows, there stood a three by three square tic-tac-toe game that covered anyone from looking outside.

In the front part of it, the doors were stationed on the second floor with two paths that allowed entry and exit to the building. The first one was a slide that provided with the means to exit, and the second was a net-like ladder that forced anyone to climb upward if they wanted entry.

A sad display of this play place was that there was an outside ball pit in a rectangular structure that looked like a fountain would have been a better choice. There was clearly more personality inside this Basilicom that had yet to be seen, and it only furthered to make the married CPUs look despondent.

Orange Heart comically felt dizzy at the sheer scale of this child's place. "Uzume's going to have to eat her own words with a fork and napkin after seeing this place."

"But Uzi! You said that there wasn't a wrong way in making my Basilicom. If the people that want to work for me aren't down to play in the obstacle course of their lives, then I don't want them!"

"Peashy! It's unbecoming of a CPU to be so selective about her own people, especially when this first step into the growth of your nation is so important," sternly spoke Green Heart.

"Nah, this is the way I want it and it will stay like this! I've been good and didn't make a single play place in my nation, so let me have it," she spoke with a pout that proved her stubbornness.

"This is bad, this is very bad. Who's going to subjugate themselves to working in conditions like these? Perhaps we should find a middle ground of sorts." Green Heart pondered over this dilemma.

"She looks very hyped up by the idea of a play place Basilicom. Vertsy, we might have to wait it out until she gets bored with the idea," stated Orange Heart.

"Hmm, I only hope that once she has her fill of the place, the novelty of a play place Basilicom will wear out," said Green Heart.

Aside from the Basilicom, the new nation that had yet to house its future people looked ready to go. The CPU couple had decided on letting Yellow Heart get to work on her nation's exposure for the rest of the day to see what kind of people would jump at the idea of a new nation. They knew that the possibility of them losing shares and people to Yellow Heart's new nation was a given, however, they were fine with it if Peashy had enough to get her by as her own CPU ruler. The landscape of Ultra dimension had been indeed spread thin with seven CPUs currently active along with now four active nations that would be biting for power.

A couple of hours later, while there was still sunlight, Uzume and Vert had kicked off their planned time off with a fighting game from Uzume's choice.

The sounds of rapid button mashing filled a dark room as colorful lights from the game screen shined on the faces of the two married CPUs. "Ha, wow, Vertsy, you're really going all out on this round," joked Uzume with a half-seriousness expressed in her voice.

"I will not be schooled by the likes of your puny character that you insist on always picking in serious fights," proclaimed Vert with her eyes not even blinking.

"Puny!? That's not what the pros of the game have to say. My character might have trashy move-sets at a glance, but she takes a skilled hand to effectively use her to beat down her opponents." Uzume then mashed two buttons together that made Vert grit her teeth at the screen.

Vert did a comeback as she pushed her analog stick sideways along with a few more buttons. "I admit that there is a high-skill gap for her that lets her compete with the others, however… she is objectively bad all around."

"Hmm, let's rephrase that: She is bad because I cannot master her, so I'll just say she's bad and use my all-rounder choice instead," teased Uzume.

Vert loudly chuckled and accepted her wife's trash talk which had been a favorite thing for them during their gaming sessions. "If this was a shooting game or any other type, I would school you all the way to the couch," she said sweetly.

Uzume gulped jokingly who wouldn't put it past her wife to actually do that. "Hey, I know that Vertsy, but come on… fighting games are my bread and butter."

"Indeed, they are," sighed Vert. This was what she yearned for- an equal who loved the competitive nature of any game and enjoyed it with a determined smile. She was ultimately pushed back as she suffered a horrible loss in the end. She instinctively wanted to toss her controller, but she then felt her wife's loving presence as she laid her head on her shoulder.

"If it makes you feel better, I actually had to redo my ultimate since you blocked it the first time," said Uzume with a cheeky smile.

Vert playfully scoffed and lightly pushed her wife away from her that in no way was meant to hurt her wife's feelings. "I want a rematch," she declared boldly.

Uzume was ready to accept the challenge when a knock brought both of their attention to the door.

The one who knocked was Umio who opened the door and floated inside. "Uzume, you have an urgent call coming from Lastation's Basilicom," said Umio.

"What's going on?" Asked Uzume with confusion.

"I believe it relates to a personal matter of Neptune," said the floating fish.

Concern had been painted across the face of the former Planeptune CPU as she got up from her comfy chair with her wife right behind her. Uzume picked up the phone from the living room and placed it to her ear. "Nepsy, is that you?"

The sound in the other line was vacant for a second until a loud crashing sound had been heard. "Uzume! It's me your favorite dimension jumping Nep!"

"Yo! Hey, what was that loud crashing sound?" Remarked the redhead with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh? Oh, Noire's been feeling a little restless and she accidentally dropped a glass of chocolate milk," laughed Neptune from the other line.

Shortly after that, another voice had been heard in the background. "Ah! That was the last of the chocolate milk!"

The voice was loud that made Uzume pull back the phone, and it was still loud enough that caused Vert to recoil as well.

"Whoa, I take it that's Noire?" Asked Uzume.

"Y-yeah… she's being a little emotional with the baby and whatnot. Listen, I was wondering if you could do me a favor of swinging by with some chocolate milk, root beer, ice cream, cheesecake, and possibly some burritos from this mom and pop shop near the Lastation central library?" Asked Neptune with the metaphorical action in the air expressing that she was nervously tying her phone cord with her finger.

"Wait, hold on, let me write this down so I won't forget," replied Uzume.

"So, you will?!"

"Well, yeah. You're my best friend… aside from Vertsy, hehe…" the red-haired girl locked eyes with her tall, blond wife that playfully placed her hands on her hips. "- ah… anyway, it's not a problem. We've been meaning to drop by and see how you all been doing with the pregnancy," said Uzume.

"Oh, trust me, Noire has shown different shades from her regular moods these past few months. I believe at one point she cried like crazy after seeing herself gain weight that she downed half a tube of ice cream in one sitting. The only reason that she didn't finish the rest was that I took it out of her hands. Kinda regret it now when she flared up in anger and threw an encyclopedia book at me."

"Jeez, were you okay?" Quickly replied Uzume.

"Pfft, it's the baby factor that's getting to her. She apologized for throwing it at me and remained moody with herself for the rest of the day. She didn't stop being moody until I took her out on our first time to that mom and pop shop."

"Oh, so you feel that if I brought some of those burritos, she would get her happy face back?"

"That's right. She's been cooped up in this house because of the baby while I've been holding down all the battle stations from work. And the weird conundrum is that she doesn't want to go out right now because she feels too cold and aching."

"Hey, I'll take care of this. It would be uncool of me to refuse my friend," grinned Uzume.

"Thanks a bunch. Oh- Ah! Got to go. Noire has that look in her eyes that she's thinking about sucking the milk out of the carpet." The phone line went dead that left Uzume with wide eyes.

"Yikes! That was too much information." She shivered at the thought that crossed her mind.

They both took to the skies in no time at all to make the trip to Lastation. Along the way, Green Heart busted out laughing to the point of tearing. "Haha! That really is too much information. I bet Noire would actually make her sleep outside the house door if she found out what her wife had said."

"Right! Like, it's totally not cools to say private things like that," said Orange Heart.

"Sigh, well, Neptune has never been good with keeping her thoughts in her mind. That girl could speak her mind and make everyone in a room look like a fool if she had good dirt on them."

"Oh, Vertsy… she just feels comfortable around Uzume to speak what's going on in her mind. I think she's been having to do a lot from juggling Noiresy's pregnancy and work all by herself."

"Hmm, if that's the case, I'm glad we are going to see them," said the green-haired CPU.

They reached the bounds of Lastation, and then they were walking the streets of Lastation in their regular forms.

"Okay, you mentioned a list of sorts for Neptune, right?" Asked Vert.

"Yeah, here's the list I got from her." Uzume handed her the list that instantly made Vert's face drop at the contents of it.

"This is a rather sugary list if you ask me… burritos? Now that just sounds very Neptune-like if it's not nachos or burgers."

"You forgot pizza, too! We former Planeptune CPUs do love our fast-foods and might as well throw in a churro."

Vert's stomach started to growl in response to the items her wife listed out. "Let's get this over with before I end up eating the things we buy," replied Vert happily.

It took about an hour until all the items were in bags, as they were on their way to Lastation's Basilicom. They paused at the front door of the Lastation couple after they made it past the reception area.

Uzume gestured silently to grab her wife's attention. "So… Noiresy might be a little emotional right now and, it's probably best that we don't talk about anything weight-related," replied the red-haired girl.

"Is it alright if I compliment her on her motherly glow?" Half-joked Vert.

"Umm… maybe? Not sure how she might take it but be mindful of any hard throwable objects around her," awkwardly laughed Uzume that made Vert grow worried.

They knocked on the door, and then it opened to reveal a disheveled purple-haired girl. She looked like she hadn't had a good night's sleep for some time as she had bags under her eyes and her hair appeared wild.

"Nepsy, did a tornado blow through here?" Blurted out Uzume as she didn't expect the state of her friend to be this drastic.

Neptune played it off light-heartedly with a smile, which was a contrast to her overall dire appearance. "Sure did. Tornado Noire blew right through here, but don't tell her I said that. She might be a tornado, but she's my tornado."

"It's so good to see you again, Neptune. We've brought the items you requested," said Vert as she showed her the bags.

Neptune sighed in relief and happiness. "You guys are my lifesavers! I wanted to go myself, but Noire didn't want to be left alone."

"Neppy, who is it!?" Said another voice that resided in the house.

"It's Vert and Uzume… and they have a surprise for you!" Joyfully responded Neptune.

Both Uzume and Vert stood captivated in place when a white-haired, twin-tailed, pregnant CPU came into view from the hallway. She was dressed in a pale blue shirt that stretched to incorporate her growing stomach along with gray sweatpants. She looked as equally if not more drained than her wife as her hair and skin color looked worse for wear.

"Hey, it's been a while since we've seen you two… huh?" She zeroed in on the bags that contained visible cheesecake, a large jug of chocolate milk, and root beer. "Are those…?" Drool had started to form in the corner of her mouth, and her eyes shined brightly that could have given Neptune's hungry face a run for her money.

"I hope you don't mind a last-minute party," said Uzume.

Black Heart regained her composure and politely gestured them to come in. "Well, I guess we can't reject your offer after making the trip here under your own volition," calmly spoke Black Heart with a royal aura to her.

The other three merely nodded and chuckled since Black Heart didn't know that her wife was the one that orchestrated the whole event.

The Basilicom housing unit was soon ablaze with laughter and joy, as all of them sat in chairs outside the patio to watch the day go by.

Black Heart was like a kid in a candy store as she devoured a slice of cheesecake, along with a glass of chocolate milk. "Oh, wow, that hit the spot so good. Can you believe that I was in need of chocolate milk today after I stupidly dropped my glass?"

This reminded Vert of the scenario where Black Heart was tempted to suck up the spilled chocolate milk from the floor.

Uzume stared daggers at her wife to keep her in check or else they might feel the wrath of the random object thrower.

Neptune rummaged through the bags and pulled out four hefty hot packages that were covered in aluminum.

Black Heart perked up when she noticed what her wife was holding. "Neppy, those look like those burritos from that mom and pop restaurant you took me in the past," declared Black Heart.

Neptune smiled cheekily and handed one to her wife who snatched it rather quickly. "The cats out of the bag now, since it would feel odd that Uzume and Vert would show up here not just with sugary goodness at the right time, but also a personal favorite of ours, too."

"So, you called them here, didn't you?" She said with not an angered look, but a wonderfully surprised one.

"I did, sweetie. The baby's been kicking you hard these past four months, and I wanted to make you happy just once if I could."

Black Heart held the burrito close to her as she found the warmness helped her collect her thoughts. "You do make me happy, you goof. I'm happy that you're in my life. I'm happy that I get to share a family with you. I'm happy that you find the time to be by my side during my mood swings and between work. And every day you find a way to keep outdoing yourself by your sweetness and love."

They exchanged a wonderful kiss that added color into their faces, and for just that moment, they didn't resemble a tired couple at all.

"Look at them, Uzume. Their tender moment really speaks out to me. I could only imagine how we would fair with a baby of our own," she said casually.

Uzume, who had been drinking root beer, almost spat it out in shock by what her wife had said. "B-baby… us!?" She said with a full-blown blush.

"Oh? Uzi, I'm only playing around with you. I know that it's not for us now, but one day, I would love to hold you while you have that motherly glow," stated Vert.

"I'm not sure if I could handle that responsibility. I already drastically change when I go into HDD, and mood swings would probably fry my brain," replied Uzume with a dry laugh.

"Now that won't do at all. Well, if I must, then I will be the one to become pregnant. I just hope that you will take charge as a wonderful father figure," joked Vert.

"Ah! Vertsy, you're so mean!" cried Uzume as she let her Orange Heart personality lose.

**I think going forward, when I write about Ultra chapters, I'm going to have Vert and Uzume be the ones taking us through the day to day lives of the CPUs. A good reason for this chapter was to get the gears moving on Plutia and Blanc as they have been in limbo without getting married, mostly because of Peashy. I do want to include cross stories between Ultra and Hyper with a pregnant Noire seeing Euri and how she would respond to that. I also want to fully realize Vert and Uzume's romance banter. I don't think I'll be doing a solo Plutia x Blanc chapter as their dynamic in a relationship is something I have trouble emulating, but who knows?**

**Going forward, I do desire dishing out more small frequent chapters as my creativity has shifted to my other story I'm working on, Fear not though, I won't let this story end on a weird note as there is a destination I do desire to stop at. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all in the next one!**


	6. Sleeping Habits

**Chapter 6: Sleeping Habits**

The door of the housing unit shared by Noire and Neptune opened as two people came through it with faces that could tell that they had a rough day.

"Oh, Histoire, my neck hurts from all that looking over to see if everyone was doing their work correctly. This pain is only dwarfed by my aching wrist from signing all those papers," said the twin-tailed goddess of Nepstation.

"I know how you feel. My mind is drained from all the people I had to help and instruct today," said a tired Histoire.

"Hmm, it can't be helped. This is the duty of every CPU to endure hard workdays like these. It wasn't the staff's fault that this workload demanded a delicate hand from all the others. I do want to thank you for taking some of the paperwork though."

"Nonsense, Noire. You would have still been hard at work long into the night if that was the case," said Histoire.

"You're not lying." Noire peered into the dimly lit hallway that its light source came from the living room. She was unable to hear any type of noise that could indicate activity from the living room. "I wonder if Neptune and Euri are still up."

They moved forward, and their eyes landed on a sleeping purple-haired girl that had her daughter sleeping on her chest. They were both on the couch with pillows lined up at the edge of the couch and on the floor also.

"They must have been waiting for us," spoke Noire with sadness that she couldn't make it on time.

"That Neptune... it's quite dangerous for a baby to be sleeping on top of her mother who's prone to shifting her body sideways," said Histoire.

On those exact words, Euri was the one who started to shift her small and blue pajama covered body sideways.

"Kyaa!" Noire disregarded her aching joints and dived forward.

Euri did a free fall that was intercepted by Noire, causing them both to hit the pillow covered floor.

"Is the baby okay?!" Cried the tome oracle.

"Yeah... I broke her fall, and the pillows broke mine," replied the twin-tailed CPU with a happy sigh.

"Nnn... no... my pudding you bad dogoo," sleepily moaned the purple-haired girl.

"I guess Euri is a bed shifter like Neptune," joked Histoire.

Noire inspected her daughter's sleeping face that remained unaffected by the sudden eventful free fall. Noire picked herself off the ground and flicked her index finger toward the nose of her wife.

"Ah!" Neptune jolted from her peaceful slumber with wide eyes that searched around. "Noire...? Ouch, why did you have to hit the nep awakening button like that?" She tiredly joked while she rubbed her nose.

"Why did you have Euri sleeping on your chest? She could have fallen from that angle, and we're lucky that I got here right away."

Neptune knew she was at fault after being told that. She shyly rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, about that. Euri and I were watching some cartoons while we waited for you two to get back. I felt like I was drifting off, and I formed a protective pillow flooring just in case."

"Neptune! While it's fantastic that you thought through your little idea, it was in no way one that was necessary. Why didn't you send her off to bed and hit the sheets yourself?"

"Well, we both wanted to wait for you. Every time I said, 'let's wait for daddy Noire to get here,' she would happily giggle."

"S-she did?"

"You betcha! Our little bun bun is getting pretty knowledgeable about her surroundings and people talking to her."

Noire cradled her sleeping daughter with a smiling face. After that, she narrowed her eyes at Neptune, expressing to her that this wasn't over.

Several minutes later, Noire had returned her daughter to her crib and made her way to the bedroom.

"So… how was work?" Neptune swung back and forth by the balls of her feet that made her look like a pendulum. Her peculiar idle animation was one of nervousness as she could sense that her wife had been holding back her stern lecture until this very moment.

Noire rubbed the back of her neck to ease her soreness, then she stared daggers at her wife. "It was brutal. We had delicate paperwork that was so sensitive, Histoire and I had to oversee every document to make sure the information was accurate."

"I see, I see. I feel so bad that I couldn't lend a hand for that workload," said Neptune as she slowly inched closer to her wife and the bed. Her actions were similar to that of someone trying to pet a wild animal that might end up knocking them out.

"You had to stay home to take care of Euri, Neptune," stated Noire without knowledge of Neptune getting closer.

Neptune had reached the bed and had lined up her hands to her wife's neck for a massage. She heard her black-haired wife grunt in mild pain, then it turned to a soft moan of relaxation. "That's a serious pickle that we find ourselves in Noire; trying to balance work, Euri, and our lives in general," said Neptune.

"Hey, work needs to be done. We can't allow shares to tank. Do you really want Euri to own a sinking nation from us when she's ready?"

Neptune's face grew sour. "let me think about that… first, she's not owning any nation yet until long into the foreseeable future. Second, she's our little girl that shouldn't even worry about that."

"I feel the same way, but we need to always keep that perspective in mind because if we slack off thinking that it's a long way away- it's going to get here quicker."

"Always the prepared parent, Nowa. Then I'm going to work hard so that day doesn't come," happily cried the purple-haired girl.

Noire pouted and turned her head. "That's what I've been saying! We literally talked in circles, Neptune! And don't think that your relaxing massage is going to get you off the hook about Euri's near accident."

Neptune sadly lowered her hands from her wife's neck.

Noire, who had her eyes closed from the relaxing massage, opened one eye toward her wife. "I didn't say to stop," she said with a bossy tone.

Neptune perked up when she saw through her wife's serious face to tell her that she was offering forgiveness with the inclusion of a continued massage. "No problem, honey. I'll rub your neck so hard, that it's going to be hanging off the side," she joked with a rubbing of the hands together.

Noire opened both eyes with a scared expression of such a reality. "Hey, let's not crank that up too high. A simple massage would suffice."

They were both halted from their conversation when the baby monitor went off with loud wails.

"Oh, Euri woke up!?" They both shouted at the same time.

They both sprinted to their baby's room without stopping. Once they got there, they gazed upon their daughter who was in a seating position in her crib with her eyes filled with tears.

"My little girl had a nightmare," sweetly spoke Neptune with her protective motherly instincts kicking in. She picked her up and rocked her gently in the hopes that she would go to sleep. That did not prevent Euri from cranking up the volume with her lungs.

"It must have been one nightmare if she's balling her eyes out like this- huh?" Noire stopped in her tracks when she noticed that her pink-haired daughter started to reduce her crying to a whimper once she caught sight of the former Lastation CPU.

"Yeah, I think she wants you, Noire." Neptune handed Euri to Noire. Once that happened, Euri ceased all forms of discontent, and her red eyes were filled with energetic joy. Neptune placed her hands on her hips in an 'I told you so', kind of way. "She truly is aware of her surroundings. Especially who her daddy is."

"N-Neptune, please stop teasing me like that. The daddy joke has run its course at this point, and I don't want our daughter's first word being papa or daddy- especially daddy!"

"But Noire… I was the one that got pregnant, so technically you are the..."

"You finish that sentence and I'm going to throttle you!" Shouted the twin-tailed CPU. She heard a small rumbling that made her look around for the source. It took her less than ten seconds to realize that the rumbling was coming from her baby.

"Sounds like her tummy is all knotted up, must be something that we ate during dinner," said Neptune.

Noire's eyes turned fearful with a frown. "D-did you pat her on the back after you fed her?"

"Umm… I can't remember, there was a fun little cartoon show that really sucked the both of us in after we finished eating."

Noire's intuition had her on the right track, unfortunately, it was too late.

Euri's face expressed nausea and discomfort like a pocket of gas was fighting its way through her and toward her mouth. Without any more warning and hardly any more time, Euri burped softly. That was only the harbinger of the little pink-haired CPU-to-be as she produced a fine amount of vomit that hit Noire's shoulder and collarbone.

"Yikes! I think maybe that was the reason she was crying her little face off." Neptune had casually picked up a camera that rested near the window. Her subtlety was unrefined when she snapped a picture of the vomit related event to forever cement it as a quirky family moment.

Noire's eyebrows twitched angrily toward her goofy wife. "You've been too relaxed with her, and I'm the one paying for it. Next time, make sure she passes her gas, and then put her to bed!"

"Ah, it was an honest mistake, Noire!" Pleaded Neptune as she knew that an extended massage was going to be needed to get out of this one.

**This chapter was short and mostly done to get an Author's note out. I know that I've been slacking on the updates, and I aim to change that with frequent updates that I have planned. During my break from this story, I had time to reflect on a definitive course to take for this story as there were a lot of unformed routes to take that made me tread cautiously. I now know where I'm taking this story. I don't want to say too much other than that the next chapters will be Euri related chapters featuring other characters like Uni, Nepgear, Rom, Ram, Vert, and Blanc. I have a phase two for this story, and I want to dedicate chapters with other characters before I move the main plot along.**


	7. Stroll to the Future

**Chapter 7: Stroll to the Future**

In the Basilicom, an infant girl sat on a couch with eyes that told a restless battle against the darkness that was sleep, and the light of activity that held possibilities.

This girl, Euri, was desperately fighting with the darkness of sleep for she wanted to play more hide-and-seek with her mommies. She couldn't get enough when they would cover their eyes with their hands, only to move them away within a blink of an eye.

On the other side of this battle, with her opponents ironically being her parents, they wanted her to accept the darkness of sleep.

Noire and Neptune sighed. Their body and mind had been placed through the wringer after spending hours trying to make their daughter take a nap. They used all sorts of tactics like reading, soft music, and cradling her.

Victory was within their sight as Euri yawned in protest, yet her eyes grew heavy and her focus started to falter.

"She's about to go down!" Whispered Neptune with excitement.

"Quiet!" She's going to break out of it if you rile her up," said Noire.

Euri tilted her upper body like a pendulum in motion until she leaned too far to one side, and her soft pink hair landed on a pillow that Neptune had placed.

"It's over," said the black-haired mother as if she was delivering the final strike on a hunt. Instead of any violent acts, she placed a blanket to cover Euri's body.

Euri was down for a nap and the two CPUs were finally able to stretch their legs after they had been sitting on the floor to be at eye level with Euri.

"Wowie, she didn't want to go down for her nap," said Neptune. This long battle with her daughter had left her tired with messy hair and bags under her eyes just like her wife.

"Don't remind me. Now, all we have to do is leave her be-"

"Kyaa-!"

Both CPU parents jumped out of their skin from the outside scream that came louder toward them with a large crash hitting the side of their balcony patio window. Two bodies were visible that looked like their landing was painful.

"What the Nep?! That was Nep Jr. and Uni."

Their eyes darted back to Euri who had awoken with fright in her eyes. She then blasted the room with a piercing cry that made both Noire and Neptune's left eye twitch.

Neptune strained her hair with her fingers as she had reached the last of her patience. She was not going to direct her anger to her daughter but to the rowdy two that had made a rude entrance.

On the outside, Nepgear and Uni groaned at each other. Their faces were painted scarlet due to reasons that caused their landing.

"You said you were going to catch me," said Uni with puffed cheeks.

Nepgear shook the stars out of her foggy mind. "I... I..."

The balcony door opened, and Neptune towered over them. "What the nep is wrong with you two?!" She said with her hands to her side. Noire joined her with a sobbing Euri in her arms.

Nepgear nervously swallowed. "Sister...?"

"Don't try to play the cute card, Nep. Jr. Here we are, trying to win the battle of making Euri take her nap that she desperately needs, and you two come crashing down from the sky like it's going out of style."

Noire could say that she was stressed but in no way was she aggravated by the fact that her daughter woke up. She let her motherly instincts kick in and began to rub her daughter's back to soothe her. "Momma Neptune must be livid if she made such a provocative claim with her being the resident expert on crashing down on people," teased the black-haired mother to her daughter.

Both Uni and Nepgear lowered their heads in shame as all they could do was accept that they messed up.

"Why did you two crashed at our balcony door? I'm just happy that the door isn't damaged, " said Noire with a sigh of relief.

"Huh?! Don't you have any wellbeing for our health?" Asked Uni.

"Not after you woke up, Euri!" Fired back the twin-tailed CPU.

Guilt had crept into the candidates' hearts, and the two groveled for forgiveness.

"You won't get out of this with just words and gestures like those. If you really want to be forgiven, then you must take Euri out for a daylight stroll," demanded the purple-haired girl.

They couldn't accept those terms any faster when the Nepstation candidates found themselves pushing a stroller across the downtown district.

Uni sighed heavily. "Jeez, Nepgear, we totally messed up this time."

"Yeah, we did. I rarely see my sister so explosive."

"You can't blame her. I bet that they were struggling for hours to put Euri down for her nap, and then here we come, crashing into their window," said the black-haired girl. Uni gave her wife a leering look. "So, what happened back there? You said you were going to catch me if I changed back in mid-air? If this is how we support ourselves, then we need to work on our trust fall."

"Uni, I didn't mean for that to go the way it did. I felt my HDD glitch out for a second that reduced my strength. Then, before I knew it, I had reverted from HDD."

"Hmm? That sounds serious and we should tell Histoire about that."

"No, it's okay. I have a feeling that it was because of Euri," said Nepgear. She happily peeked over the stroller to see her niece with half-opened eyes as she remained oblivious to her hand in the misfortune of the candidates.

Uni also peeked over the stroller to see the oblivious look of her niece that looked entertained by the shops that passed them by. Her red eyes were filled with wonder at the eye-catching signs that cracked a smile from the CPU-to-be.

"How can you be sure about that?" Asked Uni.

"Well, picture our share flow like a river. It flows toward us, that gives us our power, but then I felt that a new path had been carved out that redirected some of the water somewhere else. My heart told me not to worry because this brief change had Euri's presence to it. I could feel that my share energy went to a could place."

Uni locked eyes with her niece that gazed at her with wonder. "Hey, remember that sharing is caring, okay? We are working hard for our nation to have plenty of shares to go around, so don't start taking from other peoples' plates," said Uni with a teasing tone of voice.

"Uni, that's so mean. Besides, if you're talking about plates as an analogy, the only ones that have plates are our sisters who share with us. That's something that the three of us have in common."

"You make it sound like we get the share scraps that our sisters let us have," said Uni with a hand on her hip.

"Okay, that was a bad comparison. Let's not focus on the plate part as we do pull our own weight that doesn't make us look like-"

"-Freeloaders?" Said Uni who finished off her wife's sentence.

Nepgear puffed out a tired breath and gave Uni a frown. She could tell that Uni wasn't hurt by the plate insult as they knew they worked hard enough to warrant their shares. "I wouldn't use that word, sweetie."

Uni chuckled sweetly at her wife's annoyed face that was worth the tease. "So, what should we do to get her to fall asleep?"

"Hmm… Neptune likes to take a nap after eating her fill with food. She also gets knocked out when she's forced to work, but then again, that's old news for her that doesn't apply anymore," she said with a small laugh.

"If we're going by her parents' traits, Noire tends to fall asleep when she overworks herself. She also falls asleep when she tries to avoid certain people. Other than those, she normally goes to sleep when she feels like it," said Uni.

There wasn't a lot of ideas to go off from, so a stroll was the best that they could come up with. The toasty warmness of the sunlight as they made their way across the streets filled Euri with comfortable heaven between her soft seat and pillow, however, it wasn't enough to put her to sleep.

To add a sense of challenge to their task, they soon found themselves running away from crowded areas when random bystanders started to grow obsessive over the rare sight of the candidates looking after a baby. They managed to lose an overexcited group of fans that wanted to suffocate them with pictures and overly adorable comments about their situation that was too sweet for anyone's ears and eyes.

The place that they found themselves in, was a construction zone for an office building that had no one else working on it that day. They used their HDD to get them high in the sky toward the still-in-progress rooftop.

"Ah, maybe we didn't need to take this drastic route to lose those crazed Euri fans," said Nepgear. She stood a good distance away from the rooftop edge to make sure that the possibility of Euri falling was out of the question.

Uni was observing from the edge with her trained sniper eyes, making sure that no one was nearby or following them. She relaxed when she was satisfied with her conclusion. "There's no one around. I never knew how obsessive the people could get by seeing our niece."

"The majority of them were Planeptune citizens, and as you know, we can get pretty passionate when it comes to seeing an adorable baby like Euri, right?" Replied Nepgear. Her last part of her statement was angled toward the pink-haired baby who joyfully giggled at being talked to.

Uni smiled to herself at the sight of her wife holding Euri. This picture expressed a deeply close desire of one day having a kid of her own. Of course, that day might be far off with many unfavorable scenarios that would have to unfold first before they were allowed such a reality. "Let me hold her," said Uni.

Nepgear carefully passed Euri toward the black-haired girl.

Uni's face hid nothing back to what she felt at that moment. Her smile could rival the brightest lightbulbs. While she knew that having a kid was a faraway future, Euri being here was enough for her. "Hey, there, Eu. Jeez, you're pretty heavy. I wonder what my sister and Neptune feed you," she said with a tease.

Euri made no angry response to her comment as she was in her world that involved her putting her fingers in her mouth.

Uni materialized a magazine from her inventory and showed it to her niece. "Do you know what this is?" She felt silly for waiting for some response from the little one. "This is my monthly gun subscription. Here, it talks about all sorts of neat and cool info about the latest guns of Gamindustri. Is this something that you would find interesting?" She said with her voice sounding toned down and baby-like for Euri.

"Not this again, Uni," said Nepgear.

Uni sheepishly turned away with a blush. "Don't be like that, Nepgear. Wouldn't it be cool if she took up traits from her aunts? Just imagine her helping you work on some giant robot or she deciding to use guns for her fighting style, too."

"I don't think it's a good idea to force our wishes onto her. She should be able to become her person when she gets older. We won't even know for sure if she would act like Noire or Neptune later down the road, but we do know that we will still love her no matter who she becomes."

"Hmm, yeah, I guess you're right," replied Uni.

Euri giggled loudly and swung her arms to reach the pages from the magazine. She then used all her strength to pull downward, taking out two of the pages.

"Ahh! Hey, I wasn't done reading it!" Woefully cried Uni to the sky.

After a while later, they were both walking back to the Basilicom with a sleeping Euri being carried by Nepgear. The robot fanatic CPU smiled brightly as she could feel her niece's gentle breath hitting her neck.

**I hope you enjoyed these two small updates, and there will be more to come soon. I remember that when I decided on making this continuation from NVOP, that I wanted it to be short-story focused like episodes that could be read in any order with a background plot that did focus on something grander. That's the vision that I aim for going forward.**


	8. Duo Trouble

**Chapter 8: Duo Trouble**

The day in the land of south Boxwee, once known as Leanbox, was warm and sunny. It was perfect for a CPU-to-be pink-haired girl that wouldn't fare too well in a colder environment.

Across the sky, two objects flew toward the land that used to be Leanbox, their names, Purple Heart and Black Heart.

"How's Euri doing?" Asked the regal voice of Black Heart to her wife that flew behind her.

Purple Heart gave her a happy nod as she looked down at the sleeping girl that was strapped to a baby harness around her chest. "She's been sleeping and hasn't said a word throughout this journey."

Black Heart laughed strongly at the priceless picture of her wife and baby that displayed before her eyes. "Who would have thought that flying would be an act that would put her to sleep?" Stated the white-haired CPU.

"Her face was full of wonder earlier on when we took flight. It must have been too much excitement for her that caused her to hit dreamland after using up all of her active energy," giggled the purple-haired CPU.

"Hopefully, she stays asleep for a while. We're nearing South Boxwee after all."

They touched down at the very top of the once named Leanbox's Basilicom. Now, the only proof of that existed name was used as the street name where the Basilicom resided. The surface of the rooftop was extensive, as the building itself wasn't packed with too much detail. The Basilicom was, an odd-looking square from one angle and once Vert and Blanc had gotten married, it took on a similar appearance that invoked Lowee's style in it with hints of blue in its overall palette.

Four people were awaiting the CPU parents.

The CPU parents transformed back to their base forms once they had touched down.

"Hey, are we late?" Asked Neptune nervously.

"How can we? I made sure to get us ready an hour early just in case," said Noire with her arms crossed. If she was truly mad, then she was mad at herself for failing to stick to the correct meeting time.

The other four people were Blanc, Vert, Rom, and Ram. They all looked rather content with their arrival and being late didn't look to be a factor in the situation.

"Noire should relax that tense nature of hers, you two are actually on time for a change," stated Blanc with a small smirk.

"No need to linger on tardiness. We should focus on the main reason for this meeting," said Vert.

Rom and Ram didn't care about the adult conversation going on and bolted toward the CPU parents. They stood fascinated at the baby that still slept inside the baby harness that Neptune had on.

"Hey, how's Euri doing?" Cried Ram with energetic passion.

"She's growing like a weed every day," replied Neptune with a laugh.

"She's so tiny, Miss Neptune. Can we hold her?" Said Rom politely.

"Are your hands clean?!" Shouted Blanc. She knew well that her sisters had a tendency to get dirty when they played around in the gardens of the former Leanbox named Basilicom.

The twins pouted and held out their hands to show all of them.

"Hmm, they look pretty clean to me. Sure, just make sure to hold her properly," said the girl with the hoodie dress.

Both of the twins were overjoyed at holding the CPU baby that remained sound asleep.

They all retreated into the Basilicom via the rooftop elevator. Euri was still in the combined arms of the twins who were lost in their world filled with funny faces and jokes that were directed to Euri.

The elevator's doors opened down in the lobby that revealed a far-off room.

"The room you see off in the distance is set up to help us brainstorm an idea for the game that you both want to make," said Vert.

"Thanks a bunch, Vert- you too, Blanc," happily cried Neptune.

Blanc accepted the compliment with a small smile. "It's not a problem. I do specialize in kid-friendly games after all. However, why the sudden interest in making a kid rated game?"

Noire and Neptune shared a look toward each other before speaking. "Well, It's for Euri. We want to build a bolder section of kid games in Nepstation for her to latch onto. We figured that if she gets her association with that section of games, people will try to focus their faith to her directly that would get her a better quality of share energy rather than it passing through us, then to her," explained Neptune.

"Yeah, mostly the same thing that our sisters do to prove to the people that they are hardworking CPU candidates. I mean, we would never allow it if they slacked off while we did all the work," stated Noire.

Vert clapped her hands together joyfully. "Oh, that's a wonderful idea! And I can speak with experience as Blanc has managed to help me produce family-friendly games that this part of Boxwee has been loving."

"Hmph, you can't go wrong with a game that's built around for multiple age groups. It just shows that there's more to gaming than just violent, first-person shooter games, isn't that right, Noire?" Boastfully replied the brown-haired CPU.

Noire nervously swallowed and looked away shyly with her arms crossed. "W-well, that's debatable in the end. My people love the violent power fantasy that my games bring that are packed with action."

"Can't argue with numbers after the latest games that were released were a big hit," said Neptune.

Vert agreed, much to the hard look that her wife gave her. "I'm also guilty of following the mature-rated games, too. Say… Noire, when will the Rest of Us Part 2 be out?"

Noire recoiled from the question and she closed her eyes in response to it. "It's coming, it's coming. You can't rush a game of that scale after all. So, what if It had to be delayed?" She said with a bossy tone.

"Sorry, no details at all, is what my Nowa is actually trying to say," joked Neptune.

"Come on, let's begin brainstorming on your game idea for you two," said Blanc.

Neptune felt her sleeve being tugged by Ram, who looked determined to ask her something. "Can Euri stay out here with us to play?"

"We promise we'll look after her," said Rom, who was the one holding her in her arms.

Noire held a hand to her chin to give it some thought. "I don't know…"

"Noire, that idea sounds way more entertaining than making her witness old gals like us talking about games. If they need help, we'll be in the other room. Plus, it might totally get noisy in there with you and Blanc debating over game ideas," hinted Neptune with a nudge to her wife.

"Hmph, old gals?! You best watch your tongue, sweetie, before that brainstorming room turns into a ring." She directed Neptune's attention to the other married couple that looked deeply upset about the insulting comment.

"Yikes! Y-you know what I mean, r-right?" She nervously smiled.

"I'm here to acquire ideas- not to shoot them down, got it? That's the whole reason we are here anyway." Noire folded her arms to dismiss the possible arguing that could ensue in that room. In the end, she agreed to leave her daughter in the care of the twins.

"You both stay within the Basilicom's grounds, you hear me?" Stated Blanc to her sisters, and before she closed the doors, she exchanged a flaring red eye behind her hair that got the stern point across.

Ram rudely stuck her tongue out in the spot her older sister had been. "Pfft, we can take care of a CPU in diapers any day of the week, right Rom?"

Rom nodded cheerfully. She always made it a habit to go along with her sister's statements even though they might land them in hot water.

"Yeah, we got Euri all to ourselves," said Ram.

Rom hugged Euri extra tightly to make sure that she wouldn't drop her. "Let's go to the playroom," she said.

Ram smiled childishly at the idea. "You're speaking my language, sis." They skipped across a few rooms until they were face to face with giant double doors.

The long-haired, energetic sister pushed open the door to reveal the wonderful land made for any child.

A pink carpet filled the room with blue chairs scattered around. The room also had giant white sofas and fluffy giant armchairs. At the ceiling, a peaceful mural of a night sky filled the room. The mural was filled with stars, shooting stars, and a giant-sized moon. In the corner, a wide toy chest lay ready for anyone to unleash its contents.

Ram and Rom split up toward opposite ways, with one grabbing colors and the other grabbing coloring books.

All three of them made themselves at home on one of the white comfy armchairs that were big enough for all three of them.

They began to set their work on filling out their latest new page from their books, all the while, Euri had been placed protectively between them.

Ram felt that the silence was too much and turned on some low music to get the air flowing with upbeat tunes.

"Ram, change the song please," said Rom. She had finished her first drawing and found out that the music was all wrong that didn't inspire her coloring.

"But this is my favorite. We had to listen to your favorite yesterday, so it's my turn now," declared the pink coat girl.

Rom cutely made a pouting face that would have made anyone else fold. "When this one is done, can we listen to one of mine?"

"No problem!" Ram had been feeling the energy of her music that she didn't mean to increase the volume of her voice. It was too late now when Euri had slowly opened her eyes to the sight of the twins coloring.

The pink-haired baby didn't like this situation as she couldn't locate the two people that made up her world. A whimper filled the room that got the attention of the twins.

"Eeep! I woke her up by accident," said Ram with nervousness.

"What should we do? She's crying a lot!" Asked Rom.

Ram held up a stuffed bunny toward the CPU baby, to calm her down. That didn't help as the little one lightly knocked it away from her sight. "The nerve of her to knock out Mr. Cuddles."

"She wants her mommies, maybe we should take her back to them," said Rom.

"They're still working on their game idea. Besides, how can we act like grown-up role models to Euri if we can't calm down one cranky baby?"

"Maybe she's hungry?" Questioned Rom.

A lightbulb turned inside the head of the pink coat girl. "Food? Alright, I got some crackers. Want some?" She took out a box from her pocket and held a hard-looking cracker toward the crying baby.

"Ram, she barely has a few teeth, that's dangerous for her to munch on a hard cracker of that size," said her sister.

Ram exhaled with her eyes rolled to the side. "Lame... I'll be crying too if I couldn't eat my crackers." She instead ate the cracker that only further made the CPU baby increase her waterworks.

Rom decided to take a spin at it and picked up the pink-haired baby in her arms. "There, there, Euri. I may not be your mommy, but I can still provide a warm snugly hug."

The baby ceased her crying after a few light rocking motions.

"Wow, Rom, you got the magic touch with her," stated Ram.

Her shy sister grew red in the face from her energetic sister's praise. "T-there's nothing to it, just keep her rocking gently." She tried to pass Euri to her sister, but when that happened, Euri thrashed in defiance.

"Pfft, tell me how you really feel?" Stated the long-haired twin. Her hurtful rejection had been concealed to the best of her ability, but her twin could still see how much the baby's actions had diminished her sister's mood.

"Maybe we should play a game," said Ram.

"How about we play hide-and-seek? Said Rom.

Ram gasped with a shock that quickly became replaced with a prideful smug look. "Heck, yeah. You haven't been able to find me during our last three games, sis- making me the champion. Hide-and-seek might be too risky with Euri here, so let's play something else." said Ram with a flick of her hair.

Rom continued to smile at the idea of hide-and-seek, and for what her sister had said, had only motivated her further. "Hmm, that might change. I'm going to count to a hundred, and you two go hide," smiled Rom with a sneaky end game to her pairing them together.

"What?! No, no, no, she's going to give out my hiding spot with her crying!"

"10… 9… 8… 7…" The blue coat sister had already initiated her countdown that would be the beginning of her twin's downfall to her streak.

Ram puffed her cheeks in frustration since she had been played by her not so innocent sister. She frantically darted her head in different directions while her arms occupied the squirming and irritable baby. "Oh, man… time to make tracks." She ran as fast as her feet could carry her until she was a good three rooms away from her sister. She stopped to catch her breath and looked at her surroundings. To her left, were stairs that led up. On the back corner of the room, was furniture; the perfect size for hiding. To her right, was a grandfather clock that she could probably squeeze in if it wasn't for Euri, who wouldn't have been too keen on that.

"Here I come, Ram!"

The loud yet soft mannered shout of her sister came from the area that she came through, and panic set in. "Umm…" Her eyes found the solution to her problem in the shape of a closet close to the stairs. With no time to think, she entered the small room that was filled with cleaning supplies like brooms, mops, and chemical cleaners.

Euri's face was red as it was clear on her face that she didn't like the dimly lit room that smelled of unpleasant things to her nose.

"Pfft, you don't have to tell me that this room is bad, but my hide-and-seek streak is on the line here."

Euri grew crankier and her cries amplified across the small room.

"Hey, please keep it down, girl. You're going to give out our location away." Ram tried everything in her power to calm her down. She expended rocking motions, funny faces, and even head pats with other tender gestures. Everything fell short on Euri as she continued her crying. "Hmm, maybe you are hungry like Rom had said. Let's see what I got in my deep pockets." She felt around crackers that didn't end marvelously the last time. Her hand then connected with another item. "Ah- of course. You're Neptune's little pink vacuum of food," she said jokingly. Her hand produced a small plastic cup filled with pudding.

The pink-haired CPU ceased her cries to be replaced with a curious fixed gazed at the cup.

"Hmm, don't tell me that mommy Neptune hasn't given you your first taste of pudding? Well, this will be a treat for you." Ram grinned with happy anticipation to see what kind of face the little red-eyed devil would make. With a plastic spoon in hand, she scraped the surface layer of creamy chocolate pudding that accumulated on the spoon.

Euri never blinked away from the sight in motion as if this one act was like an engaging session of peek-a-boo with her mommy. She opened her mouth to accept the clearly obvious substance that was food, and her taste buds exploded with an eruption of profound flavors that colored her world with brighter depth and meaning. She rewarded the girl of the land of snow with a fulfilling giggle from the exquisite taste.

"Hehe, your mom can thank me later. Now, Rom won't be able to find-"

She spoke too soon when the door of the closet opened to show an overly excited Rom jumping in place. "Yes, I found you both in hide-and-seek!"

"How did you find us?!" Blurted the pink coat girl with a doomed expression that her streak was broken.

Rom placed her hands playfully behind her back. "I followed the giggling from Euri when I got here. I was planning on hearing crying, but it looks like you two were able to find common ground to become friends."

Ram checked on the expression of the CPU baby to find that she was drooling over the spoon that she had in her mouth. The pink twin sighed defeatedly yet held her head up high. "Don't act too high and mighty, sis. I'll be sure to reclaim my hide-and-seek title very soon. Besides, losing it was worth it if it got me closer to this pink devil. Promise me that you and I can play when you get a little older," she said to the baby.

Euri agreed in her own way by swinging the plastic spoon around like a rattle.

"That's so mean- I want to play too when she gets older!" Barked Rom, envy clearly shown on her face.

"Heck, yeah! The three of us will be a triple threat for sure!"

The three of them happily cheered and they continued to play for hours until the others had finally emerged from the brainstorm room.

**I didn't know how this chapter would hold up when I pieced it together, but after reading it again, I think this was one of my favorites so far only because it feels new in terms of writing Rom, Ram, and Euri together. There will definitely be more fun moments with them.**


	9. CPU Baby Season

**Chapter 9: CPU Baby Season**

The woodland area that resided outside the border of West Nepstation was a place always full of a pending adventure.

Adventurers that entered its realm would never be disappointed in the things that they could encounter.

A brown-haired girl with a blue coat traversed a dirt path. She had her phone out with data of the area showing her key locations that interested her. "Alright, where is that apple tree?" She found herself turned around when she spotted two paths to take in front of her. "Ah, shoot. The info says that there's supposed to be a straight path to the tree, which means I'm lost."

A small cry of protest pulled her out of her worry. She looked down to see a pink-haired, pudgy, and cranky baby girl giving her intense gazes with her red eyes. The baby girl was Euri, and IF had her confined to a baby harness.

IF puffed some breath out. "My mistake, we're are both lost. But don't worry little Eu, I'll find a way to get us back on the proper path." She lightly ruffled the messy, short, and pink hair of Euri that earned her a jubilant giggle.

They both took the right path, seeing what results from it might hold. During their stroll, one of the many phones from IF started to ring.

"Huh? Let see who's calling me. Not my work phone... no, it isn't my other work phone either... backup phone... no... friend phone... not that one." The ring continued and she checked the other side of her coat that housed more phones.

While this was going on, Euri curiously moved her eyes around to get a better view of the funny faces that the brown-haired girl was doing in her harsh battle to find the right phone.

"Hunting contacts... no, not that one. Yeah, not the 5pb news watch phone either, but I'm not surprised there- umm, yeah, Euri, let's keep that one just between us, okay? Let's see... game phone... nope. Oh! Pfft, wow! It's the Compa phone!" She held up a pink phone that Euri made sure to express her joy at the color.

IF moved the phone to her ear. "Hey, honey- yeah, sorry for not picking up right away, but you know me and all my phones."

The voice of Compa could be heard from the other line. "Iffy, our phone bill would be a lot thinner if you trimmed down on the phones. And maybe then, you wouldn't let the phone ring twenty times before you pick up. What about the 5pb news watch phone or your gaming phone? You even have a phone just for me to reach you, so I think we can optimize all your contacts to fewer phones."

"Hey, I thought we put to bed this phone issue. Look, t-the 5pb phone means a lot to me and you- aside from Euri who has found out about that just now- knows that. Also, games eat up a lot of battery, too. As for the last one, I have that phone to reach you because I want to make sure your calls never go unanswered, especially when my phones have a habit of going off around the same time."

"You wouldn't need to have a dedicated phone for me if you didn't have the others… wait- you said that Euri found out about it just now? Is she with you!?" Compa's shouts were so loud that it made Euri react to the shouts when she had been staring into space for the last minute.

"Umm, no…" At the worst time imaginable, Euri joyfully cried out due to her attention coming back. If it wasn't made clear to a bystander, she seemed to find herself entertained when people got hilariously nervous.

"She is! Iffy… why are you taking care of her today when you told me that you had an adventure you were going to do today?"

"Oh, uh… Nep kinda threw the baby daycare day at me at the last minute, and I couldn't say no to her."

"So, you still decided on going to the woods to conduct your search for those random apples?!"

"They're not just any random apples. My contact from the Apple Seed Growers United tipped me off about a secluded tree that grows the best apples around. If this is coming from one of them, then it must be legit."

"Iffy, I told you that I didn't need anything special for the apple pie I was going to make for Nepnep. The store-bought apples would have been fine."

IF blew some hair away from her face at her exasperated nature. This didn't relate to her wife and was mostly her way of dealing with the mood. "Sweetie, aren't you curious about their taste? It would be a triumph to knock Nep's socks off with your out of this world apple pie that would give Noire incentive to try harder."

"Is that your only reason, Iffy? There's enough room for Nepnep's two chefs in her life, especially when one of them is her wife. Besides, I have you now to test out all my new recipes with, so let's not make this a one-up thing."

IF's heart melted from the touching words from her wife. "Okay, I didn't mean to have such a fire in my words about you out doing Noire. I do actually have another reason for getting those apples. I also want this little one to try out the best pie my wife can dish out." She tickled the underside of Euri's chin that sent the CPU baby on a mad giggle spree.

"I could have still made a mean apple pie regardless, Iffy. You don't need to go off on an adventure with Nepnep's daughter in tow for my sake. Does she even know that you took her out of the nation's limits?"

"No, but she could understand, it's Noire who would be difficult at explaining the situation. Don't worry, Euri could only be in safer hands if Noire or Nep were here," said IF with a confident tone.

"I guess that's true-"

"- you guess?!" Finished IF with a raised eyebrow.

"Just get back safely and keep her safe. There might not be any dangerous wildlife this close to the safety of the city's limits, but it's good to be safe."

IF paused on the trail when her eyes landed on a far-off tree. "Okay, it won't take long… in fact, I think I see the landmark my contact told me up ahead." She canceled the call before her wife could lecture her more about her decision to run off on a moderate or possibly dangerous mission.

They both made it to a grassy clearing that contained a pond.

IF stood in awe at the lone tree that stood tall and full. The radiating rays from the sun made it stand out like a divine sign, and the red apples shined like rubies. "Looks like we struck gold, Euri."

The next few minutes were devoted to picking out enough apples that filled IF's satchel with the ruby red apples.

Euri acted very animated at the sight of the bright apples that even for someone so young, could understand their quality.

IF wiped the sweat from her forehead after picking out the last one that topped off her bag. "What say we get out of here and get that apple pie rolling?" She got no complaints from the little one.

IF turned around to head out, but her path was cut off by two ferocious Fenrir, that slowly advanced on them. "What the... these oversized mutts aren't supposed to be lurking this close to the city." The brown-haired girl pulled out her dual Qatar and took a stance. "Easy now, big guys. There's no need for violence today." She backed away slowly to the side, but the second one orbited around her slowly, cutting her escape off.

Euri could sense the danger and violent nature of the mad beasts that encouraged her to start crying.

"Euri?! It's okay, little one. These two must want the apples that I picked. There's plenty of more attached to the tree, so there's no reason we can't share." She stabbed an apple that lay on the ground and threw it at them.

One of the Fenrir smacked it away with its snout and it landed in the water. It was clear now that they weren't here for apples, which was a fear that IF avoided in the hope that she was wrong.

IF gained a stern look when both Fenrir licked their mouths with dead focused hunger at the CPU baby.

Revulsion painted the girl's face. "You guys don't want apples, do you? Go to hell if you think that you're getting anywhere near her."

They powerfully lunged at IF, the force of their paws shattering the ground in their wake.

"Euri, hold on." IF jumped back and the first Fenrir came down at the location she had been at.

The second attacked her from the side, it's mouth-watering expression clearly unrestrained.

IF charged at it with one arm held firmly across the defenseless stomach of the baby of her best friend. Her free hand, ready with her sharp blade, swung it, making a serious side slash across its body. With her momentum, she leaped into the air once she was past the Fenrir. Her objective was the trees that would provide her with room to lose them.

The earlier Fenrir snuck up on her and completely blocked her escape path. "Freakin' hell, hold on tight, pudgy face." She propelled herself back with a claw uncomfortably missing Euri's baby-harnessed covered belly by a few inches. "Grr… you bastard!" She could feel her gun to her side that itched to be drawn out, yet she allowed herself to only use her Qatar weapons. Just the thought of firing a bullet close to Euri's ears made her throat dry with anxiety. This was all made worse that, because of Euri, she would have to limit her more extreme movements like backflips twirls, and anything that could destructively leave a loud sound in its wake.

The Fenrir blocking the woods charged at her with no lesser hunger than its friend.

"Come on, come on," challenged IF under her breath. Her anger was clearly shown toward these beasts that it would be a cold day in hell when she allowed a single claw to grace the soft and delicate cheek of her best friend's daughter. She jumped and summoned a glyph behind her that gave her a platform to use. Her legs, connected with the glyph and then launched her over the head of the mad beast. Her Qatar glowed brightly, and she projected glowing blue slashes. The slashes aggressively rained down on the beast without mercy, making the pond behind the beast its gravesite; she did make sure to cover Euri's eyes to this violent act.

She dropped to the ground just in time to see the water explode with particles, indicating that one of the beasts had been slain. "You okay, Euri?"

That was a bad question as the pink-haired baby's face was stained with fresh tears. IF couldn't catch her breath when the other Fenrir from earlier came back for more. With her quick feet, she evaded one slash from its claws, then another, and so on. Her eyes widened when she spotted another mad beast coming from the woods. "Another one, really?!" She spoke too soon when a shadow loomed over her with another one, now three, actively hunting her for the baby she had on her.

The three encroached on her slowly, and she could see that she was surrounded. "Take a hint, you mutts. CPU baby isn't on the menu, but we do have a healthy serving of skewered death!" She unleashed the same attack as before on the one that loomed above her that had landed behind her.

The beast was agile enough to avoid the blue energy slashes and opened its mouth for a big portion of CPU baby. What it got instead was an enlarged flaming aura from her Qatar. The Qatar's fire acted as a fine sharpness that pierced through the mouth of the beast.

"Don't like skewered death, huh? That's okay… have some red-hot death!" She increased the power output of her heat, along with the glowing length of the aura outer blade that made short work of the beast.

The next one had been charging at her and it finally reached her just as she dispatched the current one, she had been fighting. Its headbutt came as a rude awakening to her that violently threw her a few meters away. The pain from the attack was directed more to her shoulder and back as she succeeded in shifting her body on time. She used herself getting knocked away to gain some distance from the other Fenrir, one of the originals, that had the side scar from her earlier attack.

The one she focused on came at her with extended claws. She charged at this one with a speed that got her underneath the beast and past him. It landed on the ground opposite of her with confusion until it turned around. The last thing it saw was a flurry of wild swings that moved along with her like a wild tornado. Before it knew it, it was already dead from countless slashes across its body.

Euri, during the whole ordeal, had acquired a dizzy head from the constant rapid motions from the brown-haired girl's attack. If it wasn't for the intense threat near her, she could describe this motion similar to when her mommies would twirl her around while they carried her.

Particles blinded IF's face for a second that gave the final beast a perfect opening attack. From its brethren's death, it was able to bring down its claws close to Euri.

IF's world slowed down, but not enough for her to sidestep in time. The gut reaction that resonated with her was to use her body as a shield for the baby. She made up her mind in that fraction of a second between life and possible death. Her body turned quickly, and the claws came down on her toward her back. She yelled in pain as it tore through her clothes and drew enough blood to make her lose her breath.

Euri's cries only increased as IF's world started to get blurry. Her eyes moved upward to see that the beast was going for its final strike that would do both in. IF grunted at sheer failure and frustration that it was all going to end this way. She closed her eyes with pain filling her heart of the inevitable conclusion to her life. Many dark thoughts entered her mind like Compa becoming a widow, Noire and Neptune being forced to live with a broken heart that could lead to the fall of the nation, and Euri's life ending before she even had the chance to come into her own as a CPU. Those dark thoughts drowned her into a whirlpool where nothing could escape. However, it didn't last long when her dark thoughts departed from her mind due to a radiating pink glow that came from Euri.

IF's eyes widened as Euri's whole body was enveloped in a blinding glow of pink. This pink glow rejuvenated her with positive thoughts that filled her with warm and friendly hope. With this light, she felt that nothing could hurt her. This was only the start of the effects as she also felt her back wound healing instantly.

The wild beast flinched from the light's presence that felt overpowering on the beast's presence. It was then blasted back into a tree with a violent crash. The light shook the beast to its very core and decided to cut its losses as it understood that it wasn't welcome near that light.

The light faded away and IF stood dumbfounded with her knees on the ground. She slowly looked down at the small baby that no longer glowed radiantly like a lightbulb, instead, she glowed differently with a carefree smile on her face.

"Whoa, that was share energy, wasn't it? And a lot of it for sure." She unrestrained Euri and pulled her out of the baby harness to look at her. "You not only dished out an energized blast of share energy but also healed my injury- and I'm not even a CPU. Talk about a miracle. Thank you." Euri grabbed IF's nose as a response to the brown-haired girl's praise.

IF playfully scoffed back at the baby that looked in better spirits. "Let's get out of here before more of those mutts come looking for trouble." She sighed and walked over to pick up the satchel of apples that dropped during the chaos, and that was the reason for this adventure. "I really did bite off more than I could chew. I'm going to have to tell your mommies what happened, though. Europa, you might have saved my life, but momma Noire is going to kill me."

**I am going to be doing a follow up to this chapter that will be out soon. I figured it was time to start getting the story moving a bit, and while these short stories are nice, I don't find myself naturally writing them like I thought I would.**


	10. Growth

**Chapter 10: Growth**

IF stood with a defeated expression on her face. Her eyes shifted left and right due to the person in front of her pacing back and forth.

The one pacing with masked urgency was Noire who maintained a stern face.

IF couldn't deduce more from the expression of Noire's face, only that she looked deep in thought, and was visibly disappointed.

Aside from those two, Neptune was sitting on a chair with Euri gently being rocked on her lap.

Histoire was there, with her eyes going over Euri. She was checking for possible injuries that the pink-haired girl had sustained, but she found none to announce. "Noire… Neptune… Euri is fine. I couldn't detect any scratch or bruise on her."

Neptune joyfully squealed with a closed mouth while she hugged her daughter tightly.

Noire stopped pacing and broke an alleviated smile. "Thank you, Histoire. Jeez, I don't even want to imagine those over-sized dogs even touching a single strand of hair on my baby's head." She crouched down at eye level to her daughter that looked unshaken by the events.

"Noire, let's throw all those negative thoughts right out of here, and be grateful that IF was there to beat them back," said Neptune.

"Are you serious? She wouldn't even be in that danger if IF hadn't taken her out of the city's limits!" Noire's brash nature had vomited out of her mouth without check. As soon as she said it, she did feel ashamed of herself.

Neptune gasped. "Nowa!"

"Wait, hold it, Nep. She has a point." IF picked herself off the chair and looked at Noire, ready to accept her actions. "It was all my fault that she was put in that dangerous situation. It was all for those silly apples, and I should have taken care of Euri first as my priority."

"Well… you seem sorry, and Euri doesn't look that shaken up." They all looked at the CPU baby, who oozed with radiating joyful energy. "Besides, you're not all to blame. Those Fenrir shouldn't have been that close to the city to begin with, which is still confusing to me," admitted Noire.

"Yeah, about that… I'm positive that they weren't there looking for apples or water. When they approached us, they were clearly eyeing Euri like some exotic treat."

"Ahh! Could they have smelled the pudding my baby had eaten that morning? Curse you, Ram! She peaked too soon!" Cried Neptune dramatically. At the mention of pudding, Euri opened her mouth with a salivating smile to go with it.

"Neptune, you can't be serious!?" Shouted Noire.

"Huh, so they were actively drawn to you by the scent of Euri?" Asked Histoire who floated close to IF and allowed Noire and Neptune to naturally run their conversation's course.

"Yeah, who would have known that they were into CPU babies as a snack? Just goes to show how messed up monsters can be," said IF.

"Even if it could have been pudding that excited them, my daughter is off-limits to any form of being eaten!" Stated Neptune.

"I agree with Neptune. We should count ourselves lucky that IF was still able to fend off the beasts, regardless of the unfortunate location and time they found themselves in," said Histoire.

"Very well. You did amazing IF in protecting Euri- that's all I'm going to say," said Noire with her arms folded.

"Oh, Nowa. Please don't hold a bad mood over this. Euri is safe and sound. If you ask me, this is a learning experience that's worth finding out now rather than later. It could have been us if we finally decided on going on that family picnic outside the nation's limits."

"That's different, Neptune. We can fly and no beast is going to get passed my blade," proclaimed Noire with hype encouragement for herself.

"Oh, boy… there she goes," silently muttered Neptune with a half-smile.

"Neptune sounds reasonable. This is probably a topic to bring up with Croire if certain monsters have an instinct to eat CPU babies," said Histoire.

"It's probably simpler than that. If there are monsters that eat meat, then only the most sinister and desperate of monsters will go for defenseless babies," replied Noire.

IF quizzically raised an eyebrow. "Defenseless? Now, I think that last Fenrir thought differently when Euri dealt with it."

"What do you mean?" Asked Noire.

"Uh… at the risk of adding more drama and stress to the story, I kind of left out a crucial part from earlier. The last Fenrir checkmated me, and Euri was the one that pulled me out of that jam."

"Oh! She did!?" Replied both parents.

"She did. I told you both earlier that one of the Fenrir scratched me from behind but only ripped through my coat and shirt. This… might sound weird and a horrible bomb drop, but it did manage to cut through my skin pretty good. If there is one topic to talk to that rude fairy, it would have to be the fact that Euri glowed intensely and blasted the last beast off its feet. When that happened, she healed my wound on my back with share energy."

Noire, Neptune, and Histoire looked at Euri with astonishment.

"I always wondered how it felt like to be affected by share energy, and it was truly something to remember. In that glow, it felt warm and friendly and felt like I was being accepted by so many. S-sorry for keeping my injury out of the story. There was already a lot of panic going on when you all saw me looking like a slasher victim, and when I said that Euri had been exposed to those monsters," she said nervously.

"IF… I'm… I'm glad that you're okay," said Noire. Aside from all the shock and terror they had heard from IF, the black-haired CPU knew that she would hate herself all the way to the night if she didn't acknowledge how thankful she was that she protected her daughter with an injury added.

"Wow, Iffy. That's a spot-on description. And please don't beat yourself over this anymore," said the purple-haired girl.

The brown-haired girl felt lighter, now that she had laid the whole truth out and was forgiven.

"Then it's settled. Might as well invite Croire and the others tonight for dinner to go over the shocking events of today," said Histoire.

"But we are going to have to buy dessert if we want that foodie fairy to come along," explained Noire.

"Did someone say dessert?" IF explained to them that the apples were intended to be used to bake Neptune a pie. After getting ahold of her wife, Compa, at home, she explained to her that the pie would be prepped in Neptune and Noire's housing unit and told her to get over here when she could. She also added to her wife to bring her a pair of fresh clothes that left the nurse confused.

Compa arrived at the Basilicom housing unit half an hour later with the rest of the ingredients in hand and a fresh set of clothes for IF.

"Iffy! This was a great idea to make the pie over here," cheerfully and blissfully blurted out Compa when she got there. She was still unaware of the events that unfolded. However, it wasn't for long when she got a good look at her wife's damaged outfit from behind. "Iffy! What happened?"

This conversation was one that IF dreaded because, no matter how she spun it, her wife would feel the emotional hurt and gravity that her wife had gone through severe danger. It took a few minutes of calming and reassuring words to her wife until Compa felt relaxed. Even without the issue of being wounded with blood everywhere, Compa's worried tones were not diminished.

Luckily for IF, Noire helped by grabbing the attention of Compa, and over time, channeled her worried state into baking when she offered to help Compa make the pie. The much-needed distraction further helped Compa to put the bad news behind her.

IF and Neptune were charged with setting up the table and grabbing some last-minute things from the store.

With everyone having a task to keep them busy, they felt normality come back after the dramatic events that unfolded today.

An hour went by, and It was now time for dinner. Noire and Compa were still in the kitchen getting the food ready, and Croire and the others had not made it yet.

Neptune, during this time, had bathed Euri and changed her into pink bunny-patterned pajamas.

"She looks absolutely adorable, Nep," said IF.

Neptune secured her daughter in the highchair. "That's a given, Iffy. She's a Nep after all and being cute is in our genes."

"Pfft, I don't know about that. She's cuter than you, that's for sure," laughed IF.

"Oof, that was a critical right there, Iffy. So, mean."

They both halted their banter when the space above them opened. A small fairy with a purple dress descended onto them. "I have arrived, with an empty stomach."

"Croire! Where's big me and her Noire?" Demanded Neptune.

"Not coming. Noire- unsurprisingly, didn't want to get close to the pink elephant in the room," said the dark-skinned blond.

"Pink elephant?" Asked IF.

The one to connect the dots was Neptune who folded her arms. "She doesn't want to come because of Euri, right?"

"Bingo, I knew you had some brains in that hair of yours. Can't blame her. She doesn't want to tarnish the first impression of her daughter with someone that is technically her daughter- but not really. And my Neptune, being the great wife that she is, stayed by her side and ordered out."

"Hmm, makes sense," calmly said IF.

"Well, I don't see it that way, not one bit. She should be more accepting of this, and I'm sure they are both dying to meet Euri. Say, have they come up with a name?" Replied Neptune.

Croire inched closer to the hoodie-wearing CPU. Her face was stern and clear. "They are dying to meet their baby girl, who I will not say her name as Noire will probably slingshot me out of the Basilicom." While she half-followed the request of Ultra Noire, she ultimately went with the request because her Neptune had also wanted the same thing of secrecy for the name.

Neptune folded from the directness of the fairy and crossed her arms with a pout.

"While I can understand that they are avoiding coming here, won't this drag on unhealthily? Like, are they going to stop coming altogether? Because Euri's not going anywhere," said IF.

Croire sighed tiredly, unable to find the answer for that one. "That's up to them, and I can't say if it's going to be a continuous thing."

A sting of hurt crept into the heart of the purple-haired girl. They were all family in one way or another, and she didn't want anything to fracture it.

Compa and Noire entered the room with bowls of food with them.

"I hope you all have an empty stomach for some apple pie?" Declared the sunny nurse.

"While the pie might be good, rule one of dinner is to eat your serving of food before dessert, so eat up. We made rice, mashed potatoes, chicken, and green beans," said the black-haired girl.

Croire pushed past IF and Neptune, taking the first seat at the table with her book hovering slightly above the table. "Hurry up with the food, missy," ordered Croire.

Noire pouted while holding a bowl of mashed potatoes. "Your table manners never change, do they?"

"Hey, you're the one that invited me here, and I'm sure I'm only here for my CPU knowledge rather than my table manners."

Noire shifted gears and smiled at the rude fairy. This response was a jarring turn for the fairy. "Can't hide it, I guess. Then you are obligated to answer our questions, or you won't be getting any dessert."

Croire reluctantly agreed. "Some things never change," she groaned.

Some time went by, and everyone had their fill. Euri had happily obliterated two small baby bowls of combined mashed potatoes and rice and a small plate of shredded chicken.

On a grander scale, Croire and Neptune looked like they were in an eating contest as they both finished off bowl after bowl of food.

"Hmm, I wonder where Nep puts all that food away?" Asked IF out loud and unintentionally.

Compa giggled at the question. "The same place those two probably put it in," she said while pointing to Euri and Croire.

Noire politely laughed and closed one eye. "My daughter's a growing girl, of course, I can't say the same thing for those two. The only thing Neptune's growing is her waist." She cheekily gazed at the pending response from her wife as she casually put her lips to her glass.

Croire bellowed loudly. "Not me, though. I'm not capable of gaining weight at all," boasted the fairy.

Neptune then pouted at her wife's comment. "Can you blame this Nep? The combined culinary skills of Noire and Compa is a devastating force. If I ate like this for the next month, oh- I don't even want to imagine the weight gain. It would still be a great month, though."

"Don't come down too hard on Nepnep, Noire. I only wish Iffy had a bigger appetite than she already has," she said that with a masked harshness, making IF sit straight.

"H-honey, I appreciate the meals you make when I get home every night, but I can't overeat all your scrumptious food or else I'll get sluggish in my fieldwork," said IF.

"I'll forgive you, Iffy. Only if you eat two slices of apple pie," said Compa.

If IF didn't know any better, she would think her wife had just manipulated her into eating more. "Y-yes, honey."

Noire did the honors of slicing off the pie into sections for everyone. She handed her wife, IF, and Croire, two pieces each. "Eat up, you three. Compa and I made sure to make a second one just in case," said Noire. She shared her slice with her daughter, who only ate from the filling.

Everyone's faces turned brighter upon the initial bite of the warm and delicious apple pie.

"Son of-"

Noire angrily cleared her throat toward Croire who had been a mere second away from using profanity in front of her daughter.

"What? This is good, and she won't remember this… technically," she said the last part mutedly.

"Babies absorb loads of information during this period, and I rather air on the safe side. The last thing I want is for my daughter to become a delinquent."

The fairy rolled her eyes with a quick smirk. "Oh, so true. That White Heart curses like a sailor, and look how she turned out," remarked Croire. Her statement felt both sarcastic and that of a complement rolled into one.

Up in the North, a certain self-proclaimed CPU writer had sneezed loudly. "Dammit! Who's talking about me?!" Yelled the brown-haired girl at an empty office room. Her computer screen barely had the title name to her next story.

Back to Nepstation, during dinner.

Croire had finished her first slice. She didn't say it, but she was content with the food and the quality of it made it worth the info dump they used her for. "Alright, let's not beat around the bush any longer. Come at me with your questions, so that I can enjoy the next slice in greater peace."

"Hmph, I can at least admire you for wanting to get to the point," said Noire. "I only have one question. Euri and IF went apple picking earlier today and a bunch of Fenrir attacked them. Thankfully, no one got hurt long-term wise, but IF said that Euri glowed with a bright light that protected and healed her while blasting away the Fenrir."

Croire looked visibly taken aback for about two seconds. A hesitant look then appeared on her face. "How can I put this? First, that's normal-ish, and what you saw was Euri using a basic survival instinct to preserve her life. She really shouldn't have resorted to that, but it's a harsh world out there for the unfortunate. Second, you might want to get her some new clothes, like… soon."

"Huh? W-what does that mean?" Demanded Noire.

"It means that she's growing up and sooner than planned because of her stunt. That blast she put out was a concentrated burst of share energy she's been storing for her cellular growth. When she was forced to use it, she set her bodily energy into motion that no longer stayed motionless. If she was able to use her share energy for that survival trick, then her body is ready for her growth spurt regardless."

As if on cue, a bright pink light shined from Euri's highchair.

"W-what's going on!?" Cried Compa.

"That's the light from before!" Cried IF.

"My baby!" Cried Noire.

"Whoa! She's shining like Blanc's pocket monstrosities over there!" Said Neptune as she panically jumped out of her chair.

"Oh, good. Better to get it out of the way now. I like this baby," calmly replied the blond tome fairy.

Both Noire and Neptune bolted to the light source and picked up the shining outline that was their daughter. The light subsided, making Noire and Neptune widened their eyes.

What stood in their combined hands, was a toddler slightly over a year old, with maybe a few months added. This toddler, was practically spilling out of her stretched pajamas, had short pink hair that ended around her neck, and her face had more defining features aside from a pudgy face. In fact, her face looked slimmer, and her red eyes looked fuller.

"E-Euri?" Replied Neptune.

The toddler scanned the room with an unparalleled level of curiosity in her eyes. In some sense, all her surroundings looked familiar, only this time, she was able to perceive it with more awareness. Her adorable red eyes locked back toward the two faces in front of her. Her curiosity replaced itself with a beaming smile, her hand then stretched out to Neptune. "Ma- mama!"

Neptune's eyes turned to stars with her mouth hung open. "S-she said mama, her first words?!"

"This is unreal." Muttered Noire.

The toddler Euri happily locked gazes with Noire and giggled happily. "Pa- papa!"

Noire hysterically cried out with her hands to her face. The defeated face of Noire was hardly enough to represent how destroyed she internally felt as she dropped to her knees.

"Yep, that's correct little Euri," laughed Croire.

"Explain!" Roared Noire with her eyes focused on the fairy.

"Well, she's undergoing her phases due to her cellular growth that's a direct result of her stored Share energy. A CPU baby goes through the normal cycle of growth that all babies go through up until they have enough stored share energy to reach their current threshold. When they do, their bodies tell them that it's ready to take in more share energy and advance to the next threshold. For that to happen, the growth explodes rapidly from the share energy that results in cellular growth. Some CPU babies grow at their own pace with some taking a full year or a month for those who are true prodigies. Your baby- I blame Neptune for this- took her sweet time to gather her share energy. But then, again, no parent wants their kid to grow up fast. Make the most of these wonderful times before you have a moody pre-teen asking for her space and complaining all the time."

The bombshell that was dropped on the CPU parents left them spiraling for a grip on reality. A ping of fright vibrated through them as they wondered how fast their daughter would grow up. All they knew, was that their daughter's share energy was in motion and gathering unknown amounts of it.

**One of the things that I feel like I struggle with is explaining things. I understand that there's a balance where information doesn't need to be overblown. Less is more as they say, and leaving mystery and interpretation is never a bad thing. I am excited to reach this state of the story and if you all have questions, please ask. Also, hope everyone is doing alright during these hard times. See you all in the next one!**


	11. New Heights

**Chapter 11: New Heights**

It had been a rough few days since the daughter of the CPU parents of Nepstation had gotten her growth spurt. Many things had changed throughout those few days, like new clothes, toys more appropriate for a toddler, and rapid change of behavior on how they treated their daughter.

None of this changed the basic core of their love in their heart, it just meant that change was in the air.

In the living room of the Basilicom housing unit, the now toddler Euri was playing with her new blocks. She wore a new outfit that consisted of pink shorts and a yellow shirt with a bee on it. Her hair had been styled with pigtails, an idea that Neptune had brought up. The joy on her little face, while she stacked blocks on top of each other, was pure cuteness. Her papa- or mama if you asked the black-haired CPU- had been silently watching her daughter from the kitchen doorway.

A warm smile filled with happiness and maybe a little sadness could be seen on her face. She sighed with no ounce of sorrow, and mostly from the fact that she had no choice but to think positively and accept the outcome. The wish she desired in her heart was that she would be able to have enough time with her daughter in her earlier years. That didn't say that she didn't want to witness that day where she could talk with her daughter like equals. She walked toward her daughter and crouched down on the floor next to her. "So, Euri. Croire had told me that you're going to be growing into a big girl. She also said that your retention of what you hear, and the share energy that you get from the people will also grant you basic knowledge on how things work as you get older. Which explains your new favorite pastime." She held up a wooden block to observe it with a smile.

The little one cluelessly tilted her head at what her papa was telling her as it all went over her head. "Papa!" She cried with her hands stretched out toward Noire.

Noire flinched with a sweatdrop. Her frown could be seen clear as day, and she wondered if her daughter understood what she was saying. "Papa? No, no. Ugh, I blame Neptune for constantly spewing that word toward me whenever she got the chance. And it's not your fault for associating me with that term, but please… call me mama."

Euri did not take that too kindly since it made her confused. "Papa!" She proclaimed angrily, and her little arms moved higher toward Noire.

The tired begrudgingly appointed father sighed. She picked up her daughter from the ground, which was exactly what the pink-haired girl wanted. The room soon filled with approved giggles.

"I'm not going to stop with this, Euri. You may call me papa for now, but when you get older, you need to address me as mama or mama Noire. I mean, do I look like a dad to you? I don't even make dad jokes." She snorted with a combined nervous laugh as she feared a response to her question.

"Papa!" The joy that instilled in the baby felt like a rushing wave that Noire had trouble standing against it. She masked her frustrations with a genuine hug that she desperately tried to use to overpower her other emotions. "You're still my little girl. Even if you say silly things like those. Damn Neptune."

The timer in the kitchen then sounded that caught both CPUs' ears. "Ah, it looks like the macaroni is done. How about I get you a delicious bowl for my number one girl?" The response she got from her daughter was a resounding giggling nod.

"You are so smart, thanks for replying," said the CPU.

With Noire in the kitchen, Euri went back to playing with her blocks. Unaware to Noire, her daughter had used the letters etched on the blocks to spell out the word 'papa'. A simple word for the little one, but an achievement for her, nevertheless. She celebrated with a couple of childishly claps.

Soon after that, a lively chirping sound grabbed her attention. She cluelessly scanned the room until her eyes landed on the balcony. Outside, a gorgeous bluebird walked across the metal railing of the balcony.

Euri made it her mission to find out more about this blue creature, she dropped her hands on the ground, and began to crawl. It started slow and clunky, but then she found her rhythm. Her unused leg power helped her traverse the floor that was all new to her.

When she reached the glass doorway of the balcony, her curious face pressed itself against the glass. Her cheeks and forehead flattening against the glass. Like any other toddler, all she could do was fog up the glass, while she desired to play with the creature that was out of her reach. However, like no other toddler, she quickly remembered how her papa and mama used these weird obstructions that they had all over the house. The doorknob was then in her sights. Sadly, it was too high up for her to reach.

Her little brows furrowed and a drive to never give up entered her mind. She gripped on the glass to help her keep her balance, then she worked her little legs until she was in a standing position. She whimpered slightly, noticing how high up she was now from the ground. It was only the sounds of the chirping bird that helped her suppress that fear as her desire to play with the creature was too great.

Her hand tried to reach for the doorknob, but she was still too vertically challenged for it. Her attempts did not cease, and she continued to reach for the knob with the same passion and desire that an aspiring astronaut would reach for the stars.

She broke out a smile as she felt her hand closing the distance to the doorknob, and eventually, her feet no longer welcomed the floor.

A minute later, Noire emerged from the kitchen with a steaming bowl of macaroni in one hand. "Euri! Who's hungry for some cheesy goodness?" She blinked worriedly when she didn't receive a response from her daughter. Her eyes landed on the discarded blocks, and then to the open balcony door.

The bowl then dropped to the floor with not a lingering thought as Noire's rapid footsteps charged toward the balcony. "Euri!" She shouted; fear painted all over her face.

When she got there, her daughter was nowhere to be seen. Her heart wanted to jump out of her chest when she looked over the balcony edge. Nothing graphic assaulted her on initial glance- only a huddle group of Basilicom workers that were outside on ground level.

They looked to be seeing something from above, but not glancing at her direction. Noire's phone alerted her of an incoming call. The screen flashed with the number of the Basilicom front desk. "Hello," she said.

"My Lady Noire! Other staff members are reporting that your daughter is hanging on top of the peak of the Basilicom building." Spoke the frantic female voice of a front desk Basilicom worker.

"Kyaa!" Noire turned around and looked upward to see her daughter on top of a metal platform beam at the very height of the building's peak. She threw herself off the edge and activated her HDD.

At the peak of the Basilicom, Euri had temporarily discarded her fear of heights. Her focus was more on the bluebird rather than anything else, and her being up there was proof of that feat.

A happy smile rested on her face as she inched closer to the unsuspecting bird. Her crawl eventually reached the bird that turned around when she was upon it.

The bird looked unfazed by her presence, probably already concluding that she wasn't a threat, oddly enough. It inched closer toward the CPU toddler who had rested her bottom on the metal platform beam.

The pink pig-tailed CPU stretched her right arm out and patted the head of the bird without any fears. While the little CPU danced in place at her victory, the bluebird also enjoyed the gentle and soft interactions from the odd friend that it encountered today.

Their friendly moment ended when a large gust of wind blasted from the other direction, causing the bird to take flight. Euri was forced downward by the violent wind putting her in a crawl stance. She reopened her eyes that directly made her see over the edge. After the violent windy assault, fear reignited in her eyes as she looked at the deep vastness from below. This was massive for her to comprehend, and to her, it looked like it would have gone on forever as she would spiral down without stop. Her glance had made her dizzy and she lost balanced as quick as her glance happened. "Papa!" She loudly cried for the protective figure that she knew in her world.

Another gust of wind hit her, knocking her small body.

Massive gasps from the Basilicom workers filled the air as they saw the CPU baby in free fall.

"Europa! I got you!"

Euri's crying settled when she heard that familiar voice, added with a deep and strong tone. All of this took two seconds. At the start of the point where she looked down to see teal wings coupled with its user with white hair and black outfit. To the endpoint, when she felt perfectly secured in those warm and nurturing arms.

"Sweetie, it's okay. I got you, I got you." The white-haired CPU appointed papa rocked and soothed the tense nerves that her little one had endured.

The pink-haired adventurer didn't stay despondent for long. As soon as she grew aware that her papa had saved her from the scary endless fall, she rewarded her with a joyful saliva-filled giggle.

Black Heart held her daughter by the waist and made a comically gloomed face at her little one's actions. "I see you don't stay emotionally shocked for long after dire situations. Hehe… Well, mama Neptune always does say to laugh at the face of danger when you can. Just don't go looking for danger, Euri. You're still too young to face the world with your own power, but I know that you can one day- you're my daughter after all," she said with an unavoidable boast to her words.

"Papa!" Cried the little girl, who felt like rocking her body to express her happiness.

Black Heart chuckled and held her daughter close. "I'll let it slide this time since you're so adorable, and your safety is what matters." It finally reached her on the 'how' her daughter had even reached this height. "Say… how did you get up here? Hmm, I guess I shouldn't hold my breath for a response. I'm going to keep my eyes on you every second, and… let's not tell mama Neptune about this trip upward." She enriched their mom and daughter moment when she blew a raspberry onto her daughter's tummy (using her mouth, combined with a mixture of air and vibrations onto her daughter's tummy to simulate flatulence.)

Her actions set her daughter over the moon with giggles that in turn, made Black Heart laugh. She didn't want to say it, but from the events that unfolded, it looked like her daughter flew up here. Her curiosity peaked because if that was the case, wouldn't she had gone HDD? The thought of her physically one-year-old daughter going HDD made her proud and laugh once more. The laughing part originating from how she would look like in HDD coupled with still being in diapers.

She descended to the bottom of the ground level where her staff had grouped around her. Large cheers assaulted Black Heart's ears as they all huddled close to her to express their faith and joy to the parent. Black Heart couldn't help but lightly blush, as she was taken aback. "Stop, stop, everyone. I don't deserve this, especially when I should have been watching my daughter very closely. Was anyone able to see how she got up there?" She asked.

One female staff member walked forward among her group. "Hi, Lady Black Heart. I don't think none of us saw how she got up there. I was one of the first to point out her being up there, but she was already sitting on the metal beam."

"Could she have possibly flown up there?" Cried out a male staff member across from the lady that had talked.

"It would look to be that way. Uh, I would like you all to keep this from my wife. I rather I talked to her about this myself before she finds it out randomly and freaks out. Can you all do that for me?" She said sternly.

They all agreed because the last thing they wanted was to get on their goddess's bad side. She would already be facing her wife later that day and hoping that she didn't get chewed out by her carelessness.

**This is a little shorter than the other chapters I've been doing, but I wanted to bring something out as I've been writing out the current chapter of my other story that I'm working on. There will be a follow-up to Neptune finding out about her daughter's adventure, and the next one will go from there. After that, I'm going to do another Ultra chapter. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all later. Stay safe!**


	12. Yeah

**Chapter 12: Yeah**

"My little girl!" The motherly cries of a purple-haired girl filled the room of her child. She attended to her perfectly healthy daughter who had been standing upright against the crib.

Her wife, Noire, kept her distance next to the doorway to allow her wife's concerns to dissipate uninterrupted.

"I heard about your little floaty adventure today. Are you okay?" Whispered the motherly CPU to her daughter.

No signs of discomfort or agitation appeared on the girl's face, only the usual happy and bouncy energy that she exuded.

This cute and innocent display warmed up Neptune's heart tremendously. "Oh, look at her go! I've just noticed that she's standing upright. Where's my camera?!"

"I... I got it right here, Neptune," replied Noire with shy tones to her voice. She hoped that her wife didn't hold any anger over the fact that she left her gaze away from their daughter, even if it was for a mere minute.

"Ah, thanks a bunch, darling!" She took the camera and snapped her shots. It was a good thing that Neptune had contained herself long enough to turn the flash off or else Euri would have had something else to cry about.

When she took her fill of photos, she walked past Noire. "I'm going to make her a bottle. Why don't you keep an eye on her?" She said with a cold glance at her wife that was gone as soon as it appeared.

Noire gulped nervously and looked at her daughter standing in the crib. "You think she's mad?" The reply she got from her daughter was an outlandish jubilant laugh. Noire couldn't take her seriously as she tried to suck her entire fist into her mouth. "Hey, we don't do that. That's why we have pacifiers," she remarked. She scanned the bed layer of the crib until she found the pacifier resting in a corner. After a quick wash, she angled it close to her daughter. "Here comes the binky-winki." In honesty, if anyone else heard her say that, she would probably die of embarrassment.

Her lone audience, composed only of her daughter, enjoyed her papa's funny line as she accepted the pacifier.

"Oh, are my two best girls getting along?" Neptune came back with a bottle in one hand and a bib in the other.

"Neptune!? How long were you standing there?" Fired Noire with a sweat drop on her face.

Neptune looked clueless with her finger close to her lip. "Just got here. Why?"

"N-nothing. Just gave Euri her binky."

"Well, that's nice. Let's see if she's hungry for some formula." Neptune picked up her daughter from the crib and sat with her in a corner that had a rocking chair. A window laid beside her that perfectly cast warm rays toward the rocking chair.

"I gave her some macaroni earlier, so she might not be as hungry," said the black-haired CPU.

"Hehe, that's a Nep challenge right there. To eat after you already ate. She's a growing girl, so it's all good," replied Neptune. "Whoa!"

The little pink-haired toddler could speak for herself as she began to gulp down the formula without pause.

Noire couldn't help but smile at the sight in front of her. She would never grow tired seeing her wife take on the motherly role that fit her so well. There were times that Noire would fill that role, but Neptune had this glow to her that always manifested whenever she got into it.

Euri's eyes grew heavy with every gulp she devoured until her eyes fully closed.

"She's off to dreamland," she cheered quietly. She lightly hit her on the back until she heard a soft burp, tucked her daughter into the sheets, closed the curtains, and walked out of the room with her wife.

"I never get tired of seeing you like that Neptune," replied Noire.

"Thanks, darling. It really does come naturally to me now. Like picking the best pudding pack out of a line-up, you get me?"

"I think I do?" Replied Noire with a breathy laugh at the ridiculous words of her wife.

"You better get me, Nowa. Just like you got Euri earlier today," she said with a smug look on her face.

"Ack! Weren't you not going to hold that over my head? I already feel ashamed for taking my eyes off her," replied the despondent black-haired CPU.

Neptune then jumped into the arms of her wife, who was forced to catch her to avoid them from falling. "As I said before, I'm not mad. From what you told me about her flying adventure, she sounds like she'll be getting into all sorts of trouble. And I can't be too hard on you after having my share of baby incidents in the past. All we can do is act at the moment, when they happen, and to keep her from getting too bad of a scraped knee."

"I wouldn't want to leave that up to chance, but you do make a point. If only I could wrap her in bubble wrap," said Noire with a hand to her chin

"I would too in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, we can't be that restrictive with our daughter's actions."

"I guess you have a point," she said with some reservations.

**(Later that day)**

Once Euri had awoken from her nap, the CPU parents went out for a stroll around the streets. Euri was in her stroller, her face half-awake with lingering sleepiness, and the roof of the stroller protecting her eyes from the sun.

Neptune was the one pushing the stroller while her wife walked beside her. They decided on picking up a few quick ingredients from the local market. As soon as they entered, countless eyes soon cast their glances at them.

Neptune was always an upbeat type of character and merely waved back at them to break the ice. There was not any malice or anger in the air from the people, and it was more of curiosity from the CPU baby. Word spread like wildfire that Euri had undergone some metamorphoses. However, the people in the area had enough common sense to not wedge themselves into the daily routines of their CPUs' just to get a good look at the now toddler Euri.

"Hmm, what do you think, Nowa? Should we be posting more pictures of Euri on our social pages? I think Histoire said that it would be perfect so that the people could see their little future goddess better. We wouldn't need to do some fancy press conference or media blowout."

Noire thought deeply about the current topic. "If it's okay with you, I rather not. I've come to realize that I don't want Euri to grow up with the spotlight on her too early. She'll be influenced by it negatively and would start to feel like she's owed the center of attention."

Neptune stopped walking and looked at her wife with some taken aback. "Hey, you say that like it's a bad thing. Don't you want her to feel important?"

Noire then halted with a light blush on her cheeks. "Well, she's already important to us and we'll keep that consistent with her, obviously. What I meant was that, if she is going to be put in the spotlight, then it will be when she achieves something or starts to create her own game ideas. And while I can't stop the citizens from obsessing over her or praising her, I can at least soften the blow a bit without a media presence. She's just too young for that."

"Speaking like a true tsundere papa! Okay, but at least give her some 'atta girl' pats on the back when she does awesome things."

"I… I will, obviously. Those days are behind me, and I wished I would have done that with Uni more in the past," said Noire with a soft voice that was supposed to reach herself.

A small yawn produced from the stroller that made both parents look at the source. Euri gazed at them with newly awoken eyes and a small repeatedly opened mouth like a fish.

"Ah! She looks so funny! She clearly wants her binky!" Stated the purple-haired girl. She reached inside the stroller blankets and resurfaced the pacifier that had been discarded.

They soon picked up enough supplies for tonight's meal, and they soon reached the last stop in their destination, the snack aisle.

"Chips! Chocolate! Salty and sugary super delights!" The melodious tunes of Neptune filled the aisle with life that made Noire feel relieved that they were the only ones currently in that section. "Neptune, remember, only two items," said Noire sternly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. After all my negotiations, I could have only squeezed two items out of you, so sad."

"I tend to be very resistant to alluring snacks, but if it's in the house eyeing me all the time, then I rather not be forced into that situation," stated Noire with a sideways blush and a small fake cough.

"But sweetie. You look great, and a few snacks won't change that."

Noire jolted from the related weight topic. "Pfft, you're one to talk. Last time you finished a whole bag of potato chips before we even had dinner. Then you tried pushing the food toward Histoire's plate when she wasn't looking. For a second, that poor thing thought she was losing her mind," said Noire with her arms folded.

"Oh, right. Fine, but those chips were evil, so I had to vanquish them!" Declared the purple-haired girl with a chest pound.

"Pfft, yeah… by eating them," remarked Noire with a smirk.

They spent the next few minutes scouring the aisle for the perfect snack, or more like Neptune was the one doing the hard work.

Noire had been next to the stroller as she watched Euri entertain herself with a small rattle that had been inside Noire's diaper bag.

"Ah, I can't decide. Do I want Sonic bites, or do I want Crashy chips?" She said with an urgent voice. She held both bags in her hands and she wavered between them, while she lowered and raised them between glances.

"Why not pick Kratos Krots?" Said Noire pridefully. She pointed to the very end of the aisle that had a freezer section with boxes of one kind. The box's mascot was a crude caricature of a chiseled man that was supposed to be some type of warrior. His face was ashy white with red marks on his face, while he held up a small chocolate piece high above him.

Neptune made a face at the new item and turned to her wife. "Not to downplay one of your favorite chocolate… cakes? Brownies?" She honestly didn't know what they were, only that her wife would be seen eating them from time to time.

Noire placed a hand on her chest, looking rather offended. "For your information, they're chocolate mint patties, Neptune. And they are delicious, so don't let the crude name fool you. There's actually a neat story about the origin of the Krots name that's related to one of my games that they based their mint patties on," said Noire with an aura of a teacher.

"I'm sure the story is as fascinating as the inspiration of the artist that drew that funny looking man that way. I just can't get into them, literally. You need to have teeth like some war god to break those things apart."

"Well, shame. We are goddesses, so what's your excuse," said Noire with a challenging smile that made Neptune pout.

"I'll stick to my preferred selection," replied the purple-haired girl with arms held up to show the Sonic bites and Crashy chips.

"Not today old friend," replied Noire as she eyed the Kratos Krots from the freezer. She actively took a second to look around for herself until her eyes landed on another item. "Oh, how about some Yakuza Yuzus?" Said Noire as she threw a bag toward Neptune.

"Yikes!" Neptune barely managed to catch them in time before they flew past her head. "These…?"

"Why not? They are one of Planeptune's go-to choices for healthy treats with them being a variation of rice cakes. I heard the creator of them, Grandma Yuzu, is actually a real grandma entrepreneur that took the beginning part of the name from her earlier years in some group. They called her a woman with a ferocious aura during her youth, but now she makes healthy cakes for the youth of today with her company. Hehe, why do I get the feeling that a backstory like that would make for a good game?"

"It probably is, but my noggin is having trouble coming up with the name. I'm getting dragon vibes for some reason, and that just goes to show that I should dust off my old game records. But back to the rice cakes. No thank you," stated Neptune.

"Well, I think I want to get them, and maybe have Euri chew on one. Would you like that sweetie?" Stated Noire to her daughter who had been gnawing at the rattle with her small teeth.

Euri took a break from the rattle, and while she didn't get what her papa was saying, she happily agreed with a giggle.

"How sinister, my little Euri eating healthy rice cakes instead of traditional sweets. Then you leave me with no choice. I'm getting both the Sonic bites and Crashy chips. And I'm using my allowance that Histoire gave me," boldly stated Neptune with a discarded milk cart that was in a corner being used as a stand for herself.

"I can't believe she actually still gives you an allowance even after getting married," said Noire as a side comment while she had a sweatdrop.

She jumped off from the milk cart and leaned closer to her pink-haired daughter. "How about it, Eu? Are you ready to taste the cheesy puffiness that is Sonic bites and the wild spicy Crashy chips?"

"Y-yeah…" Came the slow and choppy response from Euri. It sounded more like a word that she didn't understand the meaning of, but she heard it enough to confidently use it to reply to something with positiveness.

Both parents stood stunned at the word they heard. "Oh, my goodness. She said her third word like ever!"

"Atta girl," replied Noire with a smile.


	13. Old Habits

**Chapter 13: Old Habits **

"No! Why must we discard these!?" Cried the purple-haired mother. She held onto plastic bottles in her arms, with some practically spilling out of her arms.

Noire and Histoire sighed collectively from sheer frustration. That was not to say that they couldn't understand the dramatic nature of Neptune.

"Neptune, as much as you would like to keep bottling her, you need to come to accept the reality that she's too big for that now," stated Histoire.

"But- but… she likes it when I give her formula," urged Neptune with her bottom lip turned upward.

Noire stepped forward to throw her two cents into the conversation. "Yesterday, you gave her formula like usual, but she ended up grabbing the bottle with her hands, and she pretty much took over the drinking from you. That's a great indication that she's ready to fully transition to solid foods going forward."

"You might need to accept the fact that she no longer requires formula as a source of nutrition," added Histoire.

Neptune's sadness was immeasurable, and she looked locked in a steadfast conclusion in her mind. "I don't feel like I'm ready to let go of our little special mommy time," said Neptune. She hugged the bottles close to her chest, and silently cursed under her breath. A set of comforting arms wrapped themselves around her in the next instant.

Noire had moved forward to lend her caring support to her wife. "I know, sweetie. She's growing up too fast for us, especially since she's a CPU. We'll need to prepare for the future and to be there for her when she goes through those changes. No doubt that she's going to have it most difficult out of all of us."

Neptune sniffed and rubbed the tears away from her eyes. "True. Her brain's going to go all haywire from the sudden flood of information from the share energy when she hits her next growth spurt."

Histoire floated next to Neptune and wrapped her small arms around the head of the motherly CPU. "It will be all right. She's still going to have plenty of experiences to go through- even for you, Neptune. You still have her first walk, her first potty break as a big girl, her first angry pout when she gets denied something, and even that self-aware look of joy on her face when she gets a gift on her birthday."

A small radiant smile soon began to grow from the purple-haired girl. Hearing all those wonderful scenarios filled her with renewed happiness for the things to come.

An hour went by, and the old discarded baby bottles had been rested in the trash bin outside of the Basilicom. However, Neptune had managed to salvage one bottle that she felt had the most history with her daughter.

The hour before dinner time rolled around, Euri had been resting on the couch, with her mama Neptune's lap being used as her pillow. Euri wore blue overalls with a purple shirt that matched the purple D-clips that rested on top of her pink hair. They were going with new looks for Euri, seeing which one would grow on her in time. It was already decided that next week, they would try to style some twin tails for Euri.

Both mother and daughter burst out laughing from the cartoon that they were enjoying that filled the screen with color and wacky gag humor.

Neptune then felt her daughter lightly tug her sleeve to grab her attention. "Huh? Eu, what's going on, little bun-bun?"

Euri rapidly tapped on the corners of her mouth. "Et… Et." She worriedly uttered, in an attempt to form a conversation with her mama.

"Et…? Oh! Do you mean 'eat?'"

Euri could remember the pronunciation of that word from before and gave her mama a nod.

"Noire! Come quick!" Yelled Neptune.

Noire had been outside on the balcony with some of the light paperwork that she tried to get a leg up on when she heard Neptune from the living room. "What's wrong?" She asked when she raced inside.

"I'll let you see for yourself. Go on, tell papa- I mean, mama Noire what you said just a while ago."

The pink-haired girl locked gazes with her other parent with curious eyes as to why her mama had asked her to speak again. "Et. Et!" She feistily roared with flailing arms.

The black-haired CPU widened her eyes in amazement. "She's saying that she's hungry- I can make it out clear as day!"

"I know, right?" Well, let's get this little girl what she ordered."

It was one of those afternoons that they had decided on ordering out. One call later to a restaurant and the order had been delivered by the front desk of the Basilicom. They had ordered a large pizza that now laid on top of the living room table.

"Now that smells quite good," commented Noire with her arms to her sides.

"Indeed." Joyfully said Histoire.

Noire then blinked twice and looked around in confusion. "Hey, where's Neptune and Euri?"

Histoire now noticed the quiet atmosphere that should have been filled with the joyful cries of a little one and a purple-haired pizza lover. "D-do you think…?" The thoughts she had in her mind were quickly received by the CPU, who looked grumpy and bothered. "That Neptune…"

**(Elsewhere in the home)**

"Oh, I know I shouldn't be doing this, but you like it, right?" Neptune had taken Euri into one of the closets in the housing unit to feed her from the last baby bottle that she had. The room was dark with only a headlamp attached to the mother's forehead. Her daughter paid no mind to the weird setting of the room she was in as long as she had her bottle. In the end, she felt safe regardless because her mommy was there with her.

The mother felt happy that she was allowed one last time to absorb the moment that she and her daughter had forged together throughout soon-to-be empty baby bottles.

In the next second, the door opened to reveal a grumpy Noire and Histoire with heated gazes that could melt iron.

"Eek! H-hey, you two… um… yeah, I got nothing," she said with a nervous laugh, hoping that their punishment wasn't going to be severe.

What softened the blow that Noire and Histoire inflicted on the sneaky mother was the fact that Euri hadn't spoiled her appetite from the formula.

The little one had been taken out of the dark room and showed the pizza that they had bought. Upon initial glance, Euri expressed her content with the meal before her with a sniff to the air and a joyful clap of her hands. Everyone in the room, that included, Histoire, Noire, Neptune, and Euri took their seats at the table. Euri had taken her highchair with a pink plate in front of her.

Neptune inched her chair as close as possible to Euri's highchair. "I bet you're hungry for some big girl food. Now, this isn't good old formula milk, but let's not think too hard on that and just eat this big pie away," she said with sweet words that she hoped might help forget the others about what she did.

"Mommy makes all the sense in the world until she decided to lock herself in a dark room with a baby bottle," remarked Noire. The former CPU of Lastation wasn't traditionally angry with her wife but she was disappointed, especially after they had a heartfelt talk about growth and the future.

Neptune rubbed the back of her neck as she knew this was only the tip of the iceberg. Noire would hold back her thoughts toward her wife until later when they were alone in their room. In the end, Neptune had no regrets even if she had to sleep on the couch for the next week.

"Neptune, if I may, I have something for Euri," said Histoire.

"Oh, did you hear that? Granny Histoire has a present for you."

Histoire was taken aback by the sudden title that was bestowed onto her out of nowhere. She half gave Neptune a sour look for being labeled a granny but understood the deeper gesture too. "Euri, we apologize for disturbing your bottle time with your mommy, but it had to be done. As we get older, we must get used to new things and learn to put down old things that no longer benefit us."

Euri merely stood silent as she watched the little oracle continue to converse away. "So that you may not find this transition too disrupting, you are hereby promoted to… sippy cup." She placed a pink and teal plastic cup with a built-in straw along with side handles in front of the toddler CPU. The shape of the straw and bold colors made the toddler CPU produce an O shape mouth in astonishment.

Aside from Euri, Neptune was the one that looked beyond stunned with stars in her eyes. "This is super-duper awesomesauce, Histy! She's practically fallen in love with it," declared Neptune.

Her words spoke no lies as Euri hugged the sippy cup with both arms.

"Indeed, now you can fill your juice, soda, and water in it every time you have a meal. That way, your mommy can enjoy what she has with you just a little longer."

"Thanks, Histy," said Neptune.

"Don't thank me. Noire had helped me find the perfect one after she came to me about Euri being too grown up for a baby bottle."

Neptune comically began to cry at her wife's sweetness. Noire wasn't too receiving of her wife's emotions since she was still disappointed over her wife going rogue and feeding her daughter formula. However, she allowed a small smile with one eye open toward her wife. "Let's all eat for now and worry about nothing else. I'll get the juice and soda from the kitchen," she said.

Everyone accepted those words and had a wonderful dinner filled with laughter and joy. At the center of all that, Euri had been using her sippy cup to the fullest.

**The next one will be an Ultra chapter. I was originally going to have this one be it, but I wanted to make this one that went along with the previous one. Until next time! Take care!**


	14. Fighting Sleep

**Chapter 14: Fighting Sleep**

Noire paced back and forth throughout the baby room. Her daughter was in her arms, crying up a storm that would not relent.

Neptune laid exhausted on her rocking chair as earlier, she had tried and failed to calm down her daughter. She tiredly looked at her wife's exhausted face. "What do you think she's all fussy about?"

Noire continued to rock her daughter in place but to no positive results. "I wish I knew. She's not hungry or full in her diaper at all."

Euri continued to cry like crazy and her face had turned like a little tomato because of it. The parents would not doubt that her cries could be heard from street level outside.

"Now those are some pretty big lungs for a little one, right?" Neptune forced herself out of the seat and slapped her face to keep herself awake.

"Sweetie just go to bed before you pass out. I'll handle her since you got that meeting for the new game idea tomorrow."

Neptune thought about her wife's offer and shook her head. "Nope, not happening. This is more important than some game that could be good or meh. My daughter needs me and what kind of mother would I be if… if… yawn…" She tried to suppress her incoming yawn with her hand, but it didn't help at all. Her eyes betrayed her as with each passing blink, her eyelids would stay close just a little longer.

This earned her a giggle from her black-haired wife, who for a second, could almost drown out her daughter's cries. "You would still be a good mother. Now go trip on a bed and don't get up," said Noire.

"Pfft, I aim for great mother, man!" She pumped her fist into the air and gave herself a quick pinch of her cheek.

Noire placed her daughter on the crib and rested her back on a beanbag chair that laid in her daughter's room. She yawned strongly as her eyes started to grow heavy too. "She's fighting her sleep, that's for sure," she said with a glance to her pink-haired daughter that wore white and pink pajamas.

Her daughter's cries had a droopy base to it that lacked strong energy but were still consistent and loud. Her red eyes also had an unfocused haziness to them with the smallest bags under her eyes. The last thing to notice was her body movement, which showed her shifting her whole body left to right in a self-soothing motion.

"Yeah, but why? Girl, it's one in the morning, what are you hoping to do at this time? There are no cartoons on, and no one's playing any games," said Neptune from behind the crib bars.

Euri stopped her pendulum-like swings to acknowledge her mama with pouts and waves her arms in protest.

They both sighed and lowered their heads in defeat. "What can we do? She's so stubborn about this but there's no reason."

Neptune placed a hand on her chin and soon got an idea from what her wife said. "That's it, Nowa!" Neptune picked up her daughter and exited the room.

Noire reluctantly forced herself out of the beanbag chair and raced to catch her wife.

Neptune had reached the living room and placed her daughter on the couch. All of a sudden, Euri had stopped crying out of nowhere.

Noire reached the living room and stood stunned to the silence in the air. "How did you get her to stop crying?"

Neptune held out a hand to silence her wife. "Trust me, Nowa. I think I figured out our little girl's brain pattern." She stood over her daughter with crossed arms. "So… what now, little missy? You're here in the living room where all the big girls hang around. You're free to do whatever you want, but don't look at me to entertain you, that's for sure," sternly spoke the CPU mother.

Noire held back her thoughts that her wife might be acting too rough on her daughter as she believed that there was a method at play here to her wife's harshness.

Euri's cries appeared to return in small increased dosages as if she were putting pressure on her mommy to fold and pay attention to her again.

Neptune wavered briefly yet held her ground firmly. "Nope, you're a big girl, so find your own amusement, Eu." She then plopped down on the second couch and turned her back away from her daughter.

Euri stood silent and mouth slightly open, unable to process this turn of events. She looked at her papa that caused Noire to feel like a deer caught in headlights.

"Noire, don't pay her any mind. Trust me on this," whispered Neptune from her turned away body.

There was no victory for whatever action she chose to make. In the end, she decided that hairsplitting second to turn her head away and pretend like she was looking over some discarded envelopes that were on the coffee table.

The living room grew silent with the shuffling of envelopes, and Neptune's fake snores.

Euri had a mixture of faces that went from confusion, crankiness, and then to a surprising yawn. She moved around on the couch in an attempt for stimulation but could find nothing to keep her engaged. She gave one last glance at both her parents then threw her head against the nearest pillow. For the longest, she stared at the empty darkness of the room with disappointed eyes until those very eyes grew heavy.

The CPU parents finally glanced at their daughter to find out that she had succumbed to sleep on her own terms.

"Wow, Neptune… I feel terrible for ignoring her. How did you figure out the way to get her to sleep?"

"Well my dear, just like you said, 'she's stubborn about this but for no reason,' hehe. She was clearly fighting her sleep because she wanted to stay up with us. Once we gave her what she wanted and let her see that there was no 'party' being orchestrated in secret, she got bored and decided to sleep on her own terms. I expect nothing less from our little stubborn angel. Such a tsun moment in the making when she decided in her mind that 'well, I guess I'll go to sleep, but it's not like anyone made me go to sleep- it's just too boring.'"

Neptune's colorful commentary on her daughter's thought process raised a nerve in Noire's forehead. "She's not a tsun. That's just how babies act. Sigh, does this make us bad parents for ignoring our daughter?" Softly spoke Noire with a hand on her chest.

"Hmm… I don't like it, but it was effective in getting her to fall asleep. There are times that we need to put our pudding down."

Noire reached down for her daughter that had started to suck on her thumb. "I'm going to have to make it up to her tomorrow morning with some hot pancakes and syrup." Noire hugged her tightly as close as she could, making sure to not disturb her sleep.

"Oh my, I can't wait," said a cheeky Neptune.

"Hmph, who said anything about making pancakes for you?" Said Noire bitterly.

"Oh, I see. Paint me as the bad guy because of my clever idea- she went to sleep in the end," stated Neptune.

"Maybe… but I refuse to encourage neglectful tactics further."

"Okay, darling, we'll find a better way for sure," said Neptune. She brushed the soft pink bangs away from Euri's forehead and gave her a big kiss.

**Hey, everyone. It's been a while since I made a new chapter. The reason for that is that I wanted to shift my time to my other story that I'm working on. There have also been other story ideas that I've been putting time on that I won't mention until I have a good draft. **

**This means, that going forward, I'm going to restructure the rest of this story, but I'm still trying to figure things out. I want the story to pick up, and there won't be another chapter besides the other one I uploaded with this one until the end of the month. Because of that, I want to introduce longer chapters that have a bit more meaning to the story to make up for the slower updates. While I love making the small one-shot styled chapters, I find myself struggling with ideas to come up with and think its time to get the story moving with the plot. The plot being Euri getting older. If you have ideas for a wholesome or funny chapter do tell, and I can probably make it work but for now, I want to get things moving.**

**This might be a spoiler depending on the person since it relates to Euri's age progression, so if you don't want to know that, then don't look beyond this point. That said, Thank you all for the patience and support!**

**4**

**3**

**2**

**1**

**Her progression will be: Year and a half old, to three years old, to eight years old, and finally twelve years old. There's more to this with another milestone age but for now, this is her progression. I want to share this with you all to help you gauge how far this story has until it's done.**


	15. Silver Night of Elegance (Ultra)

**Chapter 15: Silver Night of Elegance (Ultra Story)**

A sparkling moon loomed above a calm and peaceful night sky. Spotlights that were used to inform nightlife activity pierced their bright beams into the sky. The source of these beams of light originated from one newly established Basilicom that was once merely endless grass with far off mountains.

That Basilicom was surrounded by a robust and lively city environment, that had firmly planted its roots into the land of Ultra dimension. This was the new land of Yellow Heart.

Outside the Basilicom, a mob of dapper and elegant, men and women, awaited their turn to be allowed entrance into the Basilicom by a large and opposing robot in a tuxedo.

Inside the busy Basilicom, a party of immense proportions had been going on, and there was no shortage of sea-like conversations that stretched the whole event room where the party was located.

Within the large group of people, a very board Ultra Purple Heart was enduring a long and winded conversation with two representatives from a brand-new freelance game company. "Oh… Oh… I see… my, that is something…" Her words were auto and empty as her cup of sparkling juice in her hand.

A sweat drop of awe registered on her face when she noticed that she had run out after she tried to pass the time with another drink. Funny enough, the band that was ordered for entertainment had already gone into their fourth song, and the two representatives were still going strong.

Their onslaught of boorish topics had started to put the CPU of Lastation to sleep. And it wasn't her being rude that was the main problem. From what she knew, before she turned off her brain and merely nodded away, they had been explaining their current main game that was in development with a pompous attitude. They had a goal in mind when they entered here, and that was to sell their product no matter what tools they had to use.

In a way, the second CPU of Lastation could respect that, but no more would be given. She had made it clear in the beginning, once they had pitched their intro for their game, that their flagship game was oddly similar to another one that Noire and she had, right to the fundamental foundation. Of course, the obvious intention of her words was lost on the two.

"So, what do you think, my lady? Should we lock in an exclusive with the illustrious Lastation?" Said the man with a smug aura to him.

Her attention returned once she had heard the keywords that marked the end of their conversation. "Well, I think that your concept for your main game is an interesting one, especially after going into… detail, even after the summary. You and your partner, including everyone else from your company should be proud of yourselves. But I don't think that either of us would gain any momentum from an exclusive deal."

The man, who did not deserve any description aside from him in a suit, looked bothered by the evasive response. "Preposterous! Surely you can understand that our game is just what the Lastation market needs."

"Hmm… a man in a suit that beats up other men with the use of martial arts. And is also in a gang…? I can assure you that if your game were to come to our market, it would be overshadowed by the competition there."

It was then the turn of the woman, who made her voice louder than it needed to be. "Excuse me!? You're clearly undermining the hit that our game could have. What kind of CPU are you that would let such an offer pass up?!"

Purple Heart narrowed her eyes at the rude woman but remained steadfast. "One with enough clairvoyance to understand the confusion our gamers will have when they have to decide which one to pick on release day. Earlier you boldly mentioned that your company's game was under the final stages of development and that it would be released early as next month. While that is impressive, it won't work at all. My wife and I have our own game that is also nearly done, so regrettable, it sounds like those two titles will be shoulder to shoulder on release day."

"Then just have your game delayed for a month- that should be enough of a gap for everyone to be happy," urged the woman. One could tell that the woman was a short-fuse type of person that even made her companion look at her as if she grew a second head.

"That's not an option," flatly declared Purple Heart.

"T-then how about we delay our game?" Said the man. His voice sounded less boastful and more desperate, which was a trait that the woman didn't share.

"Why should we delay our game!?" Shouted the woman.

"See. I told you neither of us would gain any momentum from this. Please understand that if your game was different compared to ours, then maybe we could have worked something out."

"This is unfair! Are you telling me that you don't trust your nation's people in having more than one option when it comes to a style of game? Look around you- that's the definition of competition," said the man, not angry, but one trying to be the voice of reason.

"You're not helping your case. This is my say in the end," said Purple Heart.

"Why? It's almost as if you're deeply invested in this game of yours beyond a market standpoint." The woman stopped talking as it all made sense to her now. "Oh… I get it. This is one of your purely personal titles, isn't it? And by the looks of it, your very first one. Your hand in this game does go deeper than a market standpoint. Were you the story outliner, character planner, and setting overseer? Pfft, I can see it in your eyes that this was your brainchild from the very start—that's why you refuse to have anything similar to compete with your game!"

Purple Heart made a face of contempt and disgust for the woman that had managed to figure out most of it. "Very good. It still won't change my mind."

"Oh, okay. Then maybe we can take this spicy info to the news. It can say that Lastation's second CPU strangles freedom of choice… all so that people would play her game," said the woman with a smirk.

Purple Heart grunted and she would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous.

A saucy laugh then came from her right that made both game representatives rigid

"Isn't that too long to be a title?" Iris Heart, dressed in a barely passable black and violet dress that showed a lot more cleavage than needed, appeared from behind the two representatives. "Are they bothering you?" She said with intense eyes that made the two shrivel in her presence.

"No, I was just telling them that Noire and I weren't interested in an exclusive with their company," said Purple Heart.

"So, I did overhear right, pardon my nosiness. Why don't you two read the room and go search somewhere else?" Said Iris Heart. Her aura had been enough to get the guy to fold.

However, the woman refused to let whatever injustice she produced in her mind to stand. "No, this CPU brings a bad name to her role. She's deliberately refusing an outstanding game only on the merits that it will tarnish her puppy-dog of a game."

"It's not like that!" Angrily declared Purple Heart.

"Don't worry, I believe you," said Iris Heart with a cheeky wink at the Lastation CPU. She then went behind the two representatives and placed a rather imposing gloved hand on their shoulders. "The CPU of the nation that you wanted to publish your new game has said no. Take that and run with it," she said very slowly as if she had reverted to her base form's personality.

"B-But… everyone is counting on us to seal this deal," said the man.

"It's not fair for us to work this hard and be unable to secure a good publisher for our game," said the woman, who appeared to be half angry, and half on the verge of tears.

"Then why don't you bet on the obvious Lady in the room," she said as she pointed across the room.

On the other side of the room, Yellow Heart was dressed in a yellow blouse, with a white knit blazer, and a black skirt. Numerous people were shaking her hand with some even pulling her aside to inform her of opportunities for her nation's gaming future.

Purple Heart observed the interactions with Yellow Heart and hoped that they weren't trying to squeeze her out of more money than some exclusives were valued. Her theory had evidence to it as Yellow Heart looked out of her element among all the fancy people.

"H-her?" Simultaneously uttered the representatives.

"Pfft… obviously. This is her land and her party, after all. I get that vultures such as yourselves would rather mingle with the power couples such as we, but please… have some restraint. If I were you, I would offer my game to the adorable Yellow Heart. She's up and coming and your company is looking for a CPU to get their game off its feet – win-win all around!"

"Hmm… I do suppose that it would be better than going back empty-handed," said the man. It was either the intimidating aura of Iris Heart or perhaps her silver charismatic tongue that won over the man.

The woman hit her partner on the side with furrowed brows. "Do you want to go home with second place?!"

That comment ignited an angered look from both CPUs since it was an unwarranted bad comment to Yellow Heart.

The one to do something about it was the sadistic CPU of Planeptune. Her soft and dangerously calm hands moved until they were rubbing the shoulders of the woman. "That's a very rude thing to say to the CPU of the land that your feet trot so carelessly on. She's done a great deal of effort to make this nation as splendid as she can. She even did away with all the child-like aesthetics that she had in the beginning."

The woman looked paled beyond belief at the sheer unnerving delicate hand motions of the CPU on her skin. "L-Lady Iris Heart… all we want is for our game to sell at its best." At this point, her words were coming out with shaky tones, like a kid telling the truth to their parent after breaking a vase.

"Then give Yellow Heart a chance. Let's face it, a third-party game like yours cannot compare to a first-party game that is built from the love and attention of its CPU… or do you wish to pitch your game idea to me? And then I can slowly explain why I wouldn't be interested either." Her right hand glided down the woman's back, and the Planeptune CPU wondered how far she had to go down.

The woman jolted forward and looked at Iris Heart with horror. "Ahh! V-very well. Grr… you'll see—You'll all see! Our game is going to skyrocket Lady Yellow Heart's fame. Let's get out of here," she said to her partner who cowardly followed behind her.

Iris Heart finally let out a laugh that she had been holding back. "Ahh… and that's how you move people."

"Thanks for the backup," sighed Purple Heart.

"Not a problem and if it helped out Peashy, then even better."

They both fondly gazed at the blond CPU that had been the center of attention since the beginning. The other CPUs had been offered exclusives and unique deals during the night, but all of them had maintained a guard for this night was dedicated to Yellow Heart.

"She looks so grown-up," said Iris Heart without taking her eyes off the blond-haired CPU.

"She is in her HDD," responded Purple Heart.

"Pfft, you know what I mean. Grown-up as a person. Blanc and I had agreed that we wouldn't even think about getting married until Peashy was ready to move on her own. A part of me is sad and happy she's on this path now."

Purple Heart smiled at the CPU she once hated. However, they had both grown as well and their bitter past now remained a relic. "Huh? Speaking of Blanc, did you know she's over there in the corner with a flaring red eye behind her blue hair?"

Iris Heart frowned with hesitant eyes. This look of hers was a rare sight to behold from one who lived to carve that expression upon others. "How bad is it?" She said to Purple Heart without making a move.

"Umm… something like, the heat of a thousand suns comes to mind," said the Lastation CPU.

Blanc, that was in her White Heart persona while also dressed in a dark blue dress, moved through the crowd. Her feet stopped right behind her now fiancée. "What were you doing with that woman?" She asked calmly and deadly.

The Planeptune CPU cautiously turned her head toward her lover. "That wasn't what you think, sweetie."

"—Oh, really! It sure as hell looked like what I think I saw. Why were you rubbing her shoulders and back like that?"

Iris Heart shrugged innocently at her fiancée. "Call it seductive intimidation, that's all that it was. Those two were giving our resident Purple Heart here a bad time."

"Is that true?" Said White Heart with vicious glares at the purple-haired CPU.

Something in the back of Purple Heart's mind told her to be truthful or else she would be facing the giant ax of the small blue-haired CPU. "Yes, that is true. Don't be discouraged, Blanc. Plutia might see her world full of toys but you… umm…" While she had a word in mind, she figured it might be in bad taste to say it, even if it perfectly encapsulated Iris Heart.

Iris Heart laughed like a child watching a comedy movie. She laughed so hard to the point that some guests made nervous glances at the CPU. "How sweet of you to understand me so well. I'll gladly take it from here. As she colorfully puts it, you are my only…" she inched closer to her fiancée with a smirk that followed a whispered word.

Red painted the face of White Heart, causing her to cough abruptly. "Grr… don't say things like that!" Her exterior was angry but deep down, she felt flustered by her fiancée's whispers. "Anyway, I prefer you to keep yourself behaved while we're here. This is Peashy's social gathering, so stop acting wild or you can forget about that thing we do during 'nap' time." Whatever that meant, it was enough to make Iris Heart grow serious and somewhat nervous. At the expanse of White Heart getting flustered, it was quite effective.

"Fine… anyway, she wouldn't put it that way. Of course, this fancy gala style event smells of Vert and not something that Peashy would have the foresight to do," said Iris Heart, trying to change the topic.

"I don't think it matters in the slightest. Only as long as Peashy delivers her welcomes to these big-time game influencers and developers. This is all an event to get her new nation the exposure she deserves," said the blue-haired CPU.

"She'll be fine. Noire and I have already agreed to allow our games to cross over to her hardware to provide support."

"Did she now?" Said Blanc with a raised eyebrow at the idea that Black Heart allowed for her games to be played outside her game console's ecosystem.

"She did. It might have taken a night out on the town with a large size buffet, but she did," said Purple Heart.

White Heart chuckled at the image of Black Heart folding all because of a menu in front of her. To think that being pregnant would make someone that diligent so absent-minded. "Well, not bad, I'll give you that. By the way, has Peashy said anything on her first-party games?"

"Maybe Vert would know. She does look confident while she stands behind Peashy over there." Purple Heart pointed back to where Yellow Heart was at, and Green Heart and Orange Heart were beside her, exchanging waves and smiles when people neared Yellow Heart. They both had a cute theme to their dresses where they had the other's main color theme going on. As they smiled and directed new people toward Yellow Heart, they almost acted like parents chaperoning kids during a prom.

"Hmph… screw that. I bet Vert had some big record-breaking game stored away in case her shares went low, but since she and her wife are all dandy right now, it's not hard to imagine that she could have given it to Peashy."

"What an act of pure passion if that's the case. I can think of no other kinder act unless Blanc were to give up one of her first-party titles," laughed Iris Heart with a hint of mockery.

Anyone could see that the topic was one that hit a nerve, as White Heart gave her fiancée a flaring red eye. "Don't hold your breath! We talked about this already—dammit! I told you that I would help her out on stuff like accessory designs, hardware upgrades, and branding. But my games are a different story. It's not the fact that I'm being selfish, but that I would prefer to keep my games under one house for the protection of the children," said White Heart.

A sweat drop appeared for both Lastation CPU and Planeptune CPU. They knew that her excuse of wanting to protect the kids was an empty argument, as Noire had tried saying the same thing before her third bowl of udon noodles.

Purple Heart also didn't want to address the elephant in the room that the woman she would be marrying was a harbinger of sadistic, unsafe, and lewd behavior.

Iris Heart laughed tenderly and hugged her soon-to-be wife from behind. "I can just see our daughter now, unable to even get a scraped knee because her mommy will always be hovering over her, like some helicopter mom."

"H-hey, to hell with that joke! Besides, what makes you think that I would be the one carrying the baby?"

"One reason: Bigger boobs," said Iris Heart with a cheerful smile that was almost similar to Plutia's carefree smile.

White Heart's face grew redder, making her lose the ability to speak and completely caught up in a dream simulation where she had the ideal bust size, she always desired.

Purple Heart made the wises choice and slowly backed away from the other two. She sighed once she was at a safe distance from those two. The sea of elegant people moved all around her, and she paused to think where her wife could be. Her gaze mindlessly observed the large chandelier that sparkled endlessly above her. It then hit her that she didn't have to think long or hard when she remembered that this party had a wide buffet display.

Her short trip through the people landed her in front of a table full of desserts, and an ice sculpture of Yellow Heart at the center. "Honey, shame on you for throwing me out there with the hungry Fenrir," said Purple Heart sarcastically but with a pout.

Her wife, Black Heart, who was dressed in a black dress with a blue waist sash that drew attention to her large belly, turned around with her mouth full of food. "Honey…" she uttered with the words coming out incoherent because of the food. She passed it down and sheepishly smiled. "Can you blame me? When Vert said that there would be food, she didn't say a buffet worth about four long tables wide and formed into a square! They even got a chocolate fondue fountain going on." She dipped a piece of chicken in the fondue and chomped relentlessly at it.

Purple Heart flinched from the sight and she made sure to keep her wife blocked from random photographers nearby. "Your appetite sure scares me at times."

"Blame the baby, okay? She's the one steering this ship right now, and she wants chicken and chocolate," cutely fired back the pregnant CPU.

Purple Heart softly smiled, and her eyes lowered toward her wife's belly. "I'm aware of that, Noire. Hey, Blake… I hope you're not causing too much trouble for your mommy now," whispered Purple Heart, her hands doing rubbing motions all over her wife's belly.

"H-hey! That tickles! And watch it with the name spoiler – there are reporters in this party," urged Black Heart.

The purple-haired CPU found herself laughing when she spotted chocolate on her wife's cheek. "Sorry." As the good wife she was, she passed a napkin across her wife's face.

"Hmm…"

"What's the matter?" Asked the purple-haired CPU.

"My feet hurt. It's such a pain," moaned the pregnant CPU. There was a chair nearby that she used to sit down. Her high heels were then slipped off to reveal the partially swollen feet of Black Heart.

Maybe we should get out of here, and put your feet in a nice hot bath," said Purple Heart, her seductive smile never faltering.

"But what about Peashy and her party?"

"I think she's doing surprisingly good, all things considered. Plutia did help me send her some exclusive offers her way."

"How? If Plutia was involved, then the story just got interesting," said Black Heart.

"I'll tell you later, but for now, let's go home." Purple Heart extended her hand out toward her wife, who smiled at her in response.

"I won't argue with you on that. Let me finish this next plate though," said Black Heart, while she also grabbed a skewered piece of collective meat from a passing waiter.

"Take your time, dear," giggled Purple Heart.

**As I said in my last chapter, this story will undergo some restructuring for the future chapters to come. Of course, I will keep the Ultra stories coming, and if anything, they will be the new short stories like the main chapters had been up to this point. I hope to see you all in the next one and stay safe everyone. **


	16. First Steps

**Chapter 16: First Steps**

Uni sighed satisfyingly, her heart radiating with joy. Couple that with the warm rays from the sun, and a recipe for a perfect day had formed in her mind. "Oh wow, it sure is busy today. I guess that's what to expect on a weekend."

The one to respond to her responded in incoherent gibberish. However, their overall tones conveyed happiness that they were there.

Uni gazed at her niece, perfectly fastened in her stroller. The little pink-haired CPU wore a white shirt with a dogoo on it, her shorts were checkered with pink and red squares forming the patterns, and she wore a purple fisherman's hat.

Uni laughed at her niece's actions, who tried shoving the hat downward on her head, squishing her soft pink hair. "Is the sun to rough?"

The pink-haired CPU had gain sufficient knowledge in her time observing those around her, and she could connect all the context as to what the black-haired girl had said. She then responded with an overenthusiastic nod.

"Okay —but if I see any red on your face that isn't your adorable Lastation red eyes, then you're getting the UV lotion," declared the gun expert, while holding up a cream.

"Y-yeah!" Responded the toddler. It wasn't that she fully understood Uni, but rather, she liked saying that word as it appeared to be a good responder.

Uni, overcome with joy, rocked her entire body from her knees, hips, and shoulders like a dancing snake. "You're so precious! I often wonder if that's Noire or Neptune's side that you're channeling when you childishly agree like that. Hmm, maybe Neptune's. Us CPUs never got the chance to be babies but if Noire had been one, then I could see her being the kind to never respond to people's questions—don't tell her I said that," replied Uni.

Euri giggled again at how funny the pig-tailed CPU was acting. Their distance from each other had reduced during Uni's spasming joy. Taking advantage of this moment, the toddler then shook her sippy cup until juice came out.

"Whoa! I know it's not that hot. Please, none of that or else my hair will get all sticky."

"O… ki…" said Euri with a smile and innocently began to drink her juice.

"Hmm, sounded like you were saying 'Okay', that's perfect." Uni grabbed the handle of the stroller and faced the direction of their current destination. "Euri, I present to you… NepNep World!"

The purple hat-wearing toddler directed her eyes at the big colorful sign above her, cooing adorably with awe. The large entity before her was an amusement park, filled with buzzing people all around. The sounds of screams filled the air when the nearest roller coaster zoomed near the boundaries of the park.

Unknown to Uni, Euri quickly shriveled up inside her stroller when she saw the scary metal-like snake that her perception had overwritten to that of a rollercoaster.

Uni reached into her pocket and felt three tickets. For a brief second, her face saddened. Afterward, she showed the ticket lady only two when the time had come. The ticket lady took the tickets and presented them with two wrist bands. "Have a Nepping time at NepNep world," said the lady.

"Thanks," said Uni.

Euri made her standard cheerful baby giggles as her aunt placed the band around her small wrist.

"We're all set to enjoy ourselves." While her words expressed positive energy, Uni's face still showed a visible reflection of sadness. She then shook her head to pull herself out of that state of mind. "What am I saying—we're going to have a fun time! I just hope that Noire and Neptune don't find out."

Before their wonderful day started, Uni remembered what her sister had said when they were still in West Nepstation's Basilicom.

**(Flashback)**

Noire scrambled around her joint office that she shared with her wife. A flustered expression shined on her face like the small amount of sweat she had produced on her forehead.

Uni rested on one of the visitor's sofas with Euri on her lap. "Man, I don't blame her for being so frantic right now, I'll be too if I had to deliver our console's software update presentation at the last minute," she said to her niece.

Neptune, who was also in the room, overheard Uni talking to Euri. "Ha! That's no skin off our noses. We can recite the update notes in our sleep. In fact, a few nights ago Noire wouldn't stop mumbling the updates in her sleep while having a smile on her face and saying, 'take that Blanc and Vert,'" boasted Neptune.

"Quiet you! I already told you that you dreamt that up. Regardless, of course, we can—we wrote the damn notes! Ekk! Crap—I mean…. Dang it!" Shouted Noire. She lowered her head and focused on stacking the necessary papers into a briefcase.

"Chill, Nowa. Uni covered Euri's ears after she heard the first bad word," said Neptune.

"Y-yeah, don't worry," said Uni with a sweat drop on her face.

Euri had a bothered expression on her face as all the sound had been silent when her ears got covered. She then aggressively shook her head to try and knock off Uni's hands.

Noire sighed. "Thanks for that. Like Neptune said, us delivering it isn't a problem—it wasn't the original idea, but when our representative suddenly got food poisoning, they have no one else to deliver the presentation that knows it like the back of their hand. What drives me up the wall is that they let us know at the last minute that we had to deliver it."

"Well, the rep guy is a resident from East Nepstation also once known as Lastation, so can you blame him for being too stubborn and trying to power through the pain?" Replied Neptune.

Noire gave Neptune the look. The look that perfectly encapsulated the fact that Noire was not having any of Neptune's logic.

Neptune cautiously laughed to herself, hoping to break the choking atmosphere that her wife had created by her look. Neptune's phone then alerted her of an incoming message that she glanced at with wide eyes. "Umm… Noire, Histy's asking us for our ETA! She says that the live coverage floor is growing impatient with the delay."

"Ghha! Really?! Tell her will be there in ten—grr, why did It have to be across this part of Nepstation?! Uni. Her snacks are in the fridge, diapers are in my diaper bag, obviously. And there's cauliflower cheese with cooked pasta pieces in the fridge for her lunch. Who knows what time we'll be getting back? But, that's all the major things to go over."

"Yeah… since we'll be at the expo, we will probably have to shake hands and get our pictures taken. Hmm, remember when Planeptune's software updates were so simple?" Grumbled Neptune. She was then caught off guard by her wife going HDD.

Euri, as a side detail, happily clapped her hands when she saw her papa turn her hair all white like a magic trick.

Back to Black Heart, she lightly yanked on Neptune's hoodie to pull her forward. "Quit your pouting. You knew that once the Nepstation V became a console that no longer needed generational hardware successors, and sustained on updates for everything from graphics, processing improvements, fan performance, and interface improvements—stuff like that! That we would need to work twice if not thrice the amount of effort to 'wow' the people. This software update in particular is on par with that of a new version of a current console with a noticeable bump in all areas of the console. You can call it… Nepstation V. 2, or maybe Nepstation V Slim… hmm, that has a nice ring to it?"

"Yikes, Blacky Heart, tone it down. Not everything has to have a slim version," said Neptune who didn't even want to entertain the question that a software update could be considered 'slim'.

"We're off!" Shouted Black Heart with fire in her eyes with the cries of Neptune following her.

"Eh… she didn't even give Neptune a chance to transform before jumping out of the balcony," said Uni once they were alone. "Oh well, I think they'll be fine, right?"

"Yeah…" replied Euri as that word had become her boiler-plate response to questions.

"Hmm, it does feel nice to see Noire embracing the overall benefits of the console these days. Mama Neptune's console's specs are a fragment of the future with how it can evolve its hardware with the changing times. At this point, should they even keep calling it software updates? I mean… this one's even going to expand the console's physical mass for better heat circulation—how crazy is that? Just goes to show that Neptune has always been sleeping on the cutting edge of technology, that's pretty much the reason her nation had been able to self-sustain itself without much input from her in the past. Pfft, they got nothing to worry about, If I remember correctly, a higher frame rate for games was also on the list. That's all they need to secure a successful expo," said Uni while she still maintained a skeptical look on her face, wondering if her niece did understand everything she was saying. "Anyway, why don't we skip on that cauliflower cheese and have ourselves a better meal at an equally better place?"

That question made Euri tilt her head in confusion as to what the candidate CPU had in mind.

**(End Flashback)**

"So, let see… what kind of things can we do?" Uni had a map of the amusement park as it had been a while since she had last been there. A wonderful memory invaded her mind related to the day when Nepgear had taken her for their surprise date. It was fresh in her mind as if it were yesterday when they enjoyed food and rides together. The purple necklace that her wife had given her back then hung around her neck, perfectly keeping her memories fresh.

"O... O…h… papa!" Cried Euri.

"Whaa!?" Uni dropped the map in a mad scramble, trying to find out where Noire was. "W-where did you see her?!"

"Mama!" Cried Euri, once again but with slight hesitation. The toddler CPU now looked confused while she continued to make attention to what she was pointing. "Mama? Papa?" She tilted her head that caused her purple hat to tilt, blocking one of her eyes.

Uni followed the direction her niece was looking at, and immediately knew why she looked confused. What stood just a few meters away wasn't Noire or Neptune, but two mascots that were dressed as the CPU protectors of Nepstation, with the inclusion of bobble sized heads. "Oh jeez, what a relief. Well, they do call it NepNep World. Huh, it's kinda cute that they added my sister as a mascot—not that she would be keen on that."

Euri continued her cries of confusion. What stood before her was a sight that her little brain could not fathom. The more she looked at the wacky duo that imitated her parents, the more she fussed in her stroller.

"Hey… there's nothing to be afraid of. I kinda understand why you might feel that way, though. Is it their large heads that scare you?" Uni did hand gestures, like a mime, that were centered around her head to give the toddler a visual representation of what she was saying.

"Y-yeah…" softly said the CPU toddler.

Uni's heart jumped out of her chest when she saw Euri hug her sippy cup as if it were the only thing to protect her. "Come on, stop that. You're my sister's daughter and Noire is afraid of nothing. Although, you are Neptune's daughter too, so I can't really tell what is negated or evened out. But… we can fix that," she happily pointed at her confused niece. Uni then waved, catching the two mascots' attention.

The Noire and Neptune mascots looked toward Uni, and they immediately ran up to her. It wasn't every day that Lady Uni would focus her attention on two background characters. They approached her, silent and emoting all their feelings.

The Noire mascot placed a hand on her hip and used her other hand to imitate a lecturing emote at Uni. The Neptune mascot cartoonishly shook her head at her companion, emoting that she shouldn't give Uni a hard time.

"Wow, you two sure have done your homework. I almost feel disappointed in myself for letting her down… almost," replied Uni to the Neptune mascot. Both Uni and the Neptune mascot immediately laughed heartily, of course, no sounds of laughter resonated from the Neptune mascot, rather, she emoted overly joyfulness with a bellowing laugh body expression.

The Noire mascot gave her companion a semblance of a glare, but it was hard to notice due to them having permanent smiles on their large heads. The way this was received was how she had her arms folded, perfectly emoting her mood.

The Neptune mascot acted fearfully, her emote translating a 'cowering in fear' stance. She changed her body language within the next second and landed an air kiss at the Noire mascot.

The Noire mascot turned her head away to ignore the lovely gesture her companion sent her way, however, as it was part of her character, she pretended to grab the metaphorical kiss from the air and stuff it in her pocket—all the while maintaining her tsundere nature.

"Hehe… she would do that," softly spoke Uni to her niece.

While Uni was having a great time interacting with the mascots of NepNep world, her niece had pushed herself as far as her stroller seat would allow her, all the while, having a held breath of fright.

"Hey, I don't suppose you two wouldn't know how to make a baby less fearful of you two?" She said with a hand on the back of her neck.

The Neptune mascot emoted a 'thinking hard' stance about that question. She then acted as if a lightbulb had manifested above her head.

Just like the actual Neptune, she had the same style of hoodie dress that allowed her to reach into one of her circular pockets and pull out a lollipop.

Euri ceased her wailing and gazed upon the lollipop with stars in her eyes.

"Pfft, candy… should have seen that coming," replied Uni with a tired smile. It did sufficiently do its job in getting the toddler to accept the two mascots.

"Thanks so much. Say… would it be alright if I had a picture taken of Euri with both of you?"

The two mascots gave each other a rapid glance before both nodding their comically large heads.

"Great, just hold her like this and I'll take the picture," said Uni.

Throughout the next minute, both mascots held a content Euri, who her only focus was the candy between her lips.

Uni took the picture that made her giddy with excitement at how hilarious it looked for Euri to be held by two cartoonish versions of her parents. "Thanks so much," she said as she waved at them.

She sighed fondly at the memory she had created with her niece when she viewed the picture again. "Hmm, I better make sure that this photo never lands toward Noire or Neptune. I doubt you'll say anything," she said, looking at Euri continuing to lick the lollipop.

"Step right up! And see if you got what it takes to be a one-shot-wonder!"

"Huh?" A challenging voice filled the black-haired girl with curiosity, to her left, an attractive game stand among other stands resided to the right of her. "Purple Invaders?" She said while reading the neon purple sign that had a retro vibe to it.

The game owner, who was a black-haired woman with blue eyes, dressed in a purple dress shirt, a red and white striped vest, and a brown straw hat, gestured Uni to approach her.

Uni feeling like she was being challenged, pushed the stroller with her toward the stand.

"My, my, my, if it isn't Lady Uni—and is that Lady Europa? Now she's a face that's rare to see these days," She said with a lift of her hat to get a good look at the pink-haired CPU.

The little CPU enjoyed the casual action of the woman and playfully lifted her purple fisherman's hat as a response.

"Yeah, that's us. Pretty cool that you managed to pronounce her name properly. Usually, my sister and Neptune don't mind everyone calling her Euri."

"That's understandable. I wouldn't doubt that once she gets older, she might be a little sour about her full name being that of some cold moon. Of course, I'm kind of a bookworm for even knowing about the origin of that name."

"Not at all. Most people don't have their heads in the stars and would rather worry about games and other things that are here on the ground. Her name might be off, but it is unique just like mine," laughed the CPU candidate from her small missable pun that she did with the word 'unique'.

"That it is. So, why don't you try your still hand on this here game? Maybe you might win something," said the woman with a friendly side smirk.

Uni would not flatly say that the woman's words got her heated, but she also wasn't going to back down since it had a teasing tone to it. "You cut to the chase pretty quick. Hmm, might win something? Pfft, let's not play around that my aim is like some third-rate mob goon that couldn't shoot a still statue. I could shoot anything you could throw at me. However, all these 'kiddy' toys don't interest me." As soon as she said that, she heard restless cries from her niece.

Euri had her arms stretched outward, looking at a stuffed bluebird plushie that hanged on the prize wall behind the woman.

"Hmph, it looks like the little future lady has her voracious red eyes trained on my little pal over here," she said with a kind smile to the toddler, but a sly one to the candidate.

Uni bit her lip in agitation, feeling like she was being played all along. "Fine. I can read the air just fine. If my niece wants that stuffed birdy, and if the only means to get it would be to play your game, then count me in." She handed the woman the requested money to play the game, and in turn, she received a plastic toy gun with a foam dart sticking out of it.

"Now, all you need to do it hit the targets," she said casually.

"W-what—what targets? All I see behind you is some shoddy platform with a purple skyline and building outlines."

The woman playfully chuckled and pressed a button next to her. "Okay, boys—we got ourselves a crack shot here. Try not to hold back." The button she pressed had made the purple skyline flash with attached sidelights that emulated lightning flashes. A recorded sound of thunderstorms sounded from a nearby device. The foundation of this set piece had a concrete floor that then started to split down the middle. From that split, a platform elevated from underneath the divided platform that housed seven eggplant creatures.

"Kyaa! Why do you have wild Eggplanters in your game stand?!" Shouted Uni.

"Huh? I thought it would be apparent with the whole, 'Purple Invaders' title above us. I did have a sign here somewhere, but it looks like the wind or some delinquent took it away," she said with no real concern. "By the way…" she said with one eye opened and her arms folded. "…these guys are no longer 'wild' as you put it. They are my associates that use their evasive talents to get paid. Why merely be wild and live out there with all the other top predators when you can use your skills to make a living?"

"So… they work for you?" Asked Uni. She watched the eggplant creatures stand proudly, waiting for their boss's orders, and some of them were even comically flexing and running in place.

"Yep, found them one after another during my travels. Mostly after guild hunters or bandits got done taking out whole groups of them. I won't lie, it made me feel sad that these harmless creatures were getting life's short end of the stick. However, there was always that one who had their instincts finely honed to evade attacks thrown at them. I could always find that lone survivor with the help of the other Eggplanters. From there, I individually offered them a new role to play their lives differently."

Uni could tell that the Eggplanters looked happy with their current living.

"What a touching story," she said flatly. "Won't work on Neptune who has a personal distaste for all things eggplant related," remarked Uni.

"You got me there. Although, I'm a freelance entertainer and this amusement park job is what's paying well currently. Plus, the owners of NepNep world don't mind my pals—as long as they don't cause any trouble. And it does fit NepNep world's theme, all things considered."

"Okay, enough talking. I won't tell Neptune about this at all. Most likely, she'll probably enjoy shooting these things all day to vent out her dislikes toward anything shaped like an eggplant."

"If she can hit them that is. Besides, if she's worried about eggplant shaped things, then she should give her shoes a hard look," stated the woman with confidence and amusement blended.

Uni ignored her words and aimed her toy gun at one of the Eggplanters that was flexing. Her first shot blasted out of her barrel, knowing full well that her shot would land.

The flexing Eggplanter then dodged by throwing its back backward.

"Huh?" Stupefied shock painted her face, and she frustratingly aimed her gun again. The next six shots were the same, always missing the Eggplanters by a mere inch.

"And that's game. Sorry, Lady Uni, better luck next time," she said with a kind smile and a tip of her hat.

Uni lowered her gun, shame oozing all around her very being. Her shame was then made more unbearable as her niece started to whimper from disappointment.

The CPU candidate's hand trembled, and then she slammed the counter with money spread out.

"Oh…" replied the woman when she noticed the money.

"Another… I want another round!" Blurted Uni with fire in her eyes.

"Now we're talking." The stand owner reloaded the gun for her, along with a casual twirl, and handed it back with a playful presentation.

Uni aimed the gun and took in a deep breath before letting it out. Following in conjunction with her next set of breaths, her shots responded between them. The first two missed the Eggplanters who scrambled around the small enclosed space like wild dogoos. This was all calculated from the first shot that rang true.

The third shot was missed but it was a shot that she intended to miss. Due to that, one of the Eggplanters at the far left jumped toward the right, with two of its friends already occupying that space.

"There!" Uni fired her fourth shot that she once again missed by shooting it above their heads.

This caused the Eggplanters to flinch and stare at her with confusion.

"Now to get serious!" She rapidly fired her last three foam bullets at them in a sideways formation, cutting off the left, right, and center, where the three clumped up Eggplanters were located.

They tried to dodge, and it almost ended exactly as she expected it, with the left and right Eggplanters getting hit. The middle one was able to evade the incoming projectile by sheer luck and only because it had seen the Eggplanter to its left getting hit.

"That's the end of that. I'll be taking my bluebird now," declared Uni with a proud smile.

The stand owner looked at her Eggplanters that had lifted themselves from the ground. Two out of the seven had a foam dart sticking out of their bellies, the suction making a noticeable sound when they pulled them out.

"Well played," said the stand owner. "We had you pinned to be highly skilled from the start. However, it looks like you used our seriousness to fool us. Damn, my Eggplanters were focused to accept every skilled shot out of you, only to be deceived by lackluster shots that lured them into a false sense of security as well as a disadvantaged position."

"I admit that purposely missing shots are sacrilege to any skilled weapons expert—such as myself. Although, if it's for my niece, I'll gladly bite the bullet for her."

"I like that. My faith shares go out to you, Lady Uni. As the rules of the game goes, one blue birdy for the little pink-haired devil." She presented Euri with the object of her affection.

The glow in the eyes of the pink-haired toddler exploded upon touching the softness of the bluebird plushie.

Both Uni and the stand owner's hearts melted by the marvelous joy of happiness from the toddler.

"You know, I would have given her the toy regardless of the outcome… probably," she said with a chuckle.

"Hmph, no thanks. You can keep your charity. The day I let that happened, I'll be a failure of an aunt in the eyes of her."

"That's why I said probably," responded the woman with a laugh.

Their next destination within the amusement park was a Ferris wheel that Uni had set her sights on. They did their elongated time in the crowded lines until they were firmly seated inside one of the pods of the Ferris wheel.

"Wow! Look Euri, you can see all of this side of Nepstation from up here." Uni pulled herself out of her dumbstruck gaze to notice that her niece had not been looking through the window with her.

Euri had lowered herself so close to the seat, appearing to melt into it if she desired. A trembling shiver reflected her actions, and she silently cried while avoiding the scenery that her aunt had encouraged her to gaze upon.

"What's the matter, Euri? D-do you have a stomachache or maybe something else is hurting you?"

The toddler continued to whimper, and her whimpers increased when she heard metal from the Ferris wheel screeching.

"What the…? Looks like the ride stopped all of a sudden," said Uni.

"Ah! Ah! No… up." Euri pleaded to her aunt.

All the info to the despair that her niece was enduring assaulted the black-haired girl like a rushing wave. "You're afraid of heights… oh crap! Us being stuck at the very top doesn't help the situation either. I'm so sorry!"

Everything was set in motion, and nothing else short of Uni busting the doors of the pod open would end the experience quicker. She did entertain the idea but figured that she didn't want to cause damage and unnecessary fright to the others riding with them. "Euri, I know that this is scary for you, but you need to endure. These things happen with rides like these, and they'll get it going soon. What's done is done, and all we can do is see this through."

For a toddler that didn't know that much about what her aunt was saying, she could piece her sorrowful expression with the complacent nature that said her aunt wasn't going to take any action. Her response to this was an enhanced cry that even made the glass in the pod vibrate—or maybe it was the candidate's imagination.

The CPU candidate awkwardly and hesitantly rubbed her niece's back to quell her cries. "I'm not really good when it comes to full-blown cries like these. Hmm, what would Neptune or Noire do?" An image of pudding manifested in her mind; however, she didn't have that foresight to pack something like that. Her second idea was related to her sister but grasping the concept of the proper way to calm the toddler failed to register in her mind. "Let's see, let's see… Noire would use something that Euri is familiar with to catch her attention…"

A lightbulb flashed above her head when she spotted the bluebird plushie that had been discarded about a foot away from the wailing toddler. "Euri, check out…um… Mr. Bluewing. He's not afraid of any heights, so you shouldn't be either."

Euri's cries had subsided slightly, probably because of the playful name her aunt had given her plushie, but It was still not enough to fully dissolve her displeasure of the situation. She continued to whimper softly, charging up another storm of cries.

"Maybe that sounded ruder rather than helpful. How about this…" She cleared her throat and moved the plushie in front of her so that Euri's point of view would only see the plushie. In a deeper and funny voice, she began to speak. "Hey, there! Mr. Bluewing can understand your fear of heights. When I was little, my… umm… birdy mom pushed me off the nest, in the hopes that I would fly. You might think that was cruel, but it wasn't. She was showing me, tough love and I would have never been able to fly on my own. You might be scared right now, being so high up, but this fear will pass and in time, you will kick yourself from ever being scared of something like flying or even being up in the air. See this moment as a stepping stone toward that day. All you have to do is endure this ride and acknowledge the scenery outside."

Uni, while still in her Mr. Bluewing persona, pointed her wing at the window that made Euri hesitantly follow the signal.

For Euri, while her fears were not negated, she grew light-hearted by the charming actions of her friendly plushie. This half and half battle of shutting her eyes from the world or following Mr. Bluewing's guidance could have gone either way. It was only because of some transient instinct or gut feeling that she chose to agree with Mr. Bluewing.

Her red eyes observed the vast landscape that assaulted her perception of the world. It looked like the world was stretching endlessly before her that made her skip a beat. Looking down proved to be a fatal reaction as she perceived the ground to be an ever-growing bottomless chasm.

The blue wing of Mr. Bluewing compassionately rested on her little shoulder when it was apparent that Euri was going to look away. "Both your mommies never back down from a challenging fear. That's why they love each other and have you. That's why that bravery is also inside you—you're a Nep and a Noire after all."

Euri didn't understand where Mr. Bluewing was getting at. Her fear didn't dissolve by those inspirational words, but more like they were better managed. In the end, she snatched Mr. Bluewing from Uni's hands and hugged him tightly while she felt compelled to endure looking at the scenery of Nepstation. Something inside her told her that she would lose if she looked away, perhaps it was stubbornness, pride, or maybe an innate feeling to not disappoint Mr. Bluewing. Whatever it was, she continued to look at the scenery until the Ferris wheel started to move again.

"I'm so proud of you, Euri," stated Uni when they were back on the ground.

The CPU toddler did nothing more than hug Mr. Bluewing and be happy at the fact that she was back on firm ground.

Sometime later, they were both sitting next to an outside restaurant table. Uni's stomach had been rumbling as lunchtime had been a few hours ago with them unintentionally skipping it. "Eat up. I did promise you something better than cauliflower cheese with pasta pieces—not that Noire couldn't have made that meal delicious."

Euri wolfed down cheese fries on a plate that rested on her stroller food platform.

"Whoa. Take it easy there. Jeez, you're Neptune's daughter, no doubt about that. Just goes to show that not even my sister's manners can overwrite Neptune's foodie appetite," said Uni with a smile. Her being unable to restrain her niece was a foregone conclusion in her eyes that she accepted, as she ordered another set of cheese fries for them to share, along with a funnel cake.

After their well-deserved respite, the next ride was already locked in for Uni, that being a teacup ride with her niece, which was for the best due to prior experience.

Before they had entered the attraction, Uni had pulled out the baby harness from the bottom pouch of the stroller. It was this way, that Euri could have enjoyed the experience of the ride to the fullest without being scared. It also helped that the speed of the teacup that they were in didn't make any fancy high-speed twirls, coupled with the already moving overall ride.

They then emerged from the teacup seat a few minutes later, their sense of balance somewhat compromised as they were leaning side to side as Uni walked back to the stroller. "Whoa… it's a good thing we waited for our food to digest before doing that."

Euri responded with outrageous joy, her small hands, and legs expressing her unyielding joy.

Uni then reached a bench, and she threw her head back to take in a breather. "What a day. I'm so happy that you and I are sharing this epic day. Although… it would have been even more epic… if she was here, too." Uni's eyes lowered, sadness taking over those vibrant red eyes of hers. She then heard what she could only describe as 'confused baby noises' from the small toddler.

While Uni, could not come close to truly understand what her niece was trying to communicate, it didn't stop her from filling in the details with her active imagination. "What's that Euri? You're wondering why I'm so sad?" Uni paused, wondering if this form of rationalizing would constructively benefit her inner turmoil.

Euri responded with more baby gibberish that unintentionally solidified Uni's conclusion.

"Well… the thing is, auntie Nepgear didn't want to come to NepNep World. Even after I told her that I wanted to snag you away from your parents to spend a secret day here, she would rather go to that 'Gear' convention she was so hyped up for these last two weeks. I'm sure that it's not called that, but I didn't pay attention to that. I know that it has to do with robots, at least." Uni then heard more gibberish from her niece.

"Why didn't I go with her?" Uni looked angered by this question. Of course, there was no one to get angry with except herself, considering she was projecting these questions through her niece. "Hmph, maybe because I already reserved this day and these tickets in advance. I worked my pigtails off to get this day free, but she didn't see it that way. She didn't see that I wanted all three of us to get together like a family," quietly mumbled Uni at the end. A deeper scar in her heart that she couldn't help inflicting on herself, was the fact that she also refused to come back to the place they had their amazing surprise date. "If I'm not able to have both of you, then maybe I don't deserve you both," she said sadly.

"U… Ui… N…"

"Huh?!" Pulled out of her depressed state, she witnessed her niece trying to speak to her, face struggling and all. She wholeheartedly smiled at the cherished effort her niece gave her. "I get it. You're calling my name, how sweet. Ugh… if only I could understand, you pink beautiful mini Noire!" She sighed helplessly, making a scene that made a few turn their heads. Her red eyes connected with the little one's red eyes. "You don't have to say anything. We're family and that shared expression of sadness because of my sadness is all I need to understand what you have to say. Yeah, so what? I'm here and you're here, so let's continue our fun day."

A good distance away from them, a large crowd, congregated around the two mascots from earlier. "What's all the commotion over there?" The two CPUs got in closer, just enough to hear a girl talking to another.

"Look at this. Today's the opening of NepNep world's dance zone at the east end of the amusement park."

"Ohh! I heard good things about it, mostly that they're going to be giving out awesome prizes for participating," replied the other girl.

"Hmm…" Curiosity got the better of Uni, and in the end, she made her way toward the dance zone that had everyone talking.

They had soon arrived at the dance zone that was an in-door place with air conditioning, restrooms, and even a food area. "Wow!" Replied Uni in awe. Everything around them was dark, except for the food area having proper lighting. The compensation for the lack of light in the place was neon lights, turning the atmosphere around them into something akin to 'glow in the dark' theme. "Well, at least this gives us a chance to get some proper cooling, so this trip wasn't for nothing," replied Uni who had wiped the sweat from the outside heat.

Euri cheered at the air conditioning that hugged her all over and cooled her down.

A girl with brown hair and glasses walked toward Uni with a smile on her face. "Oh, my goddess—you're lady Uni! And Lady Euri, too! Welcome to Nep's Tunes! The dance zone to end all dance zones. Here, you can waltz, tango, jazz, tap, hop, and skip until your heart's content. We also have prizes to award the efforts of those who participate in our numerous tournaments that are scheduled for the ongoing month."

Uni was handed a pamphlet that had a long list of tournament names. "Jeez, you guys sure know how to plan. Then again, I would hate for a place to be open without having a roadmap for their future activities."

"Totally. We have tons of events scheduled for people of all skill levels and tastes. In fact, today's event is a free-for-all to celebrate Nep's Tunes grand opening. What do you say, can I put you on the list for participants?"

Uni recoiled with a blush on her face. "Umm, I'm not really a dancer per se. I was just curious about seeing this place, that's all," she said nervously.

"Oh, that's too bad. If you do change your mind, our prizes range from small knickknacks to a Nepstation console."

"Not a lot of incentive there for me," chuckled Uni.

"Ah, of course. I bet the little one has her own console just waiting for her to get older to use. While that's our top prize, we do have tiers of prizes below that, and a gun cleaning kit is among that list."

"What?! Why is a family-friendly amusement park giving out a gun cleaning kit?" Barked Uni with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, I'm just a worker here and don't know the inner workings of our prizes. NepNep World does get a lot of sponsors thanks to the Basilicom's connections."

"Hmm." Uni glanced at the prize booth that filled the walls with all the prizes one could get. Prizes like backpacks, plushies, toys, home appliances, electronics, and clothing were displayed there. She could even see the console and gun cleaning kit among them. A third prize then grabbed her attention, which was a two-foot-long robot model from a television show she had trouble remembering.

"If it peaks my interests, then I might be up to it later," she said with a sideways glance, not giving the worker any clues to her real interests.

The girl politely bowed her head and walked away to entice other guests.

When they were alone, Uni crouched down to her niece. "Hey, see that big hunk of plastic on that wall? You think auntie Nepgear would like that?"

Euri glanced at the tall and highly detailed robot, standing proudly on its connected platform. All she gave to her aunt's response was her hands joyously clapping together.

"It's good to hear your input. However, should I even bother trying to get that robot, especially after she ditched us for that 'gear' convention? Hmm, I guess I can't fault her for that since she had been waiting a long time for her event. Maybe I should just get the gun cleaning kit for myself and call it a day. B-but… that would mean I would have to dance—regardless of what I want, I'll need to dance in the end!" She made a cringed face when she pictured dancing in front of so many random citizens that would make her face blush.

"Okay, everyone! Last call for participants. If you're interested, don't be shy and come join us at the dance squares."

"Huh?" Uni and Euri were given a good view of the area where all the dancing would be orchestrated. A good distance from them, two square platforms laid spread on the ground and connected to a large television monitor. In the home screen of the monitor, there were various songs to choose from. The platforms had bright tiles that indicated where a user would be tapping their feet at to register to the beat of the music on the screen.

What caught both Euri and Uni's attention, and especially Euri, was the multi-colored light show from four pillars that were stationed in each corner of the overall perimeter.

"Euri? You seem to be energetic. Could you perhaps want to also dance?"

"Y-Yeah!" From her observation from her aunt talking while she looked at the platform and to the jubilant nature the pink-haired girl exuded, she had spontaneously uttered her agreement with the only word she knew for a certainty would move her toward her desire goal.

Uni unable to fight against the wishes of her niece, swallowed her pride and embarrassment.

A short while later, Uni and her niece were melded into the crowd, as they both waited for the event to start.

Music all around them soon filled the air and the light show from the pillars intensified in the response of the first set of people taking the stage. The first was a couple that confidently took the stage platforms and wasted no time in dazzling all the people with their wild and eccentric moves. They moved like professionals, their every step having excitement and gracefulness that would touch the passion of even the unemotional variety.

All this made Uni swallow dryly in nervousness. However, the opposite was translated to Euri, who had her bright red eyes widened. For her, this display of art and amazement was on the level of fantastical stories her mama would tell with makeshift puppets to delineate the storytelling.

"Shoot… so much for taking first place," cynically uttered Uni.

The next one to take the stage was a lone man. With one tap of the music screen, a sluggish song filled with power erased the graceful energy that the earlier couple had produced. The man's choice of dancing wasn't graceful in the slightest. All his moves were slow and hard, as his feet stomp to the beat of the equally slow music.

Uni wished she could ultimately grimace at his brutish dance philosophy from the man, however, his dance held a beauty of its own. Like music created from industrial equipment that was never supposed to resonate any melodious sounds compared to properly crafted instruments. His stomps were rhythmic and catchy that anyone could respect the power that was in no way intended to be graceful. The flow of the music only heightened the energy of the stomps.

Even Euri, who by reason and nature should have been terrified by the loud stomps, instead cheered, ultimately comprehending the powerful brutish nature of the stomps.

Everyone else seemed content with the unique display of dancing that earned the man numerous claps from the guests.

Once the man had exited the platform, the girl from earlier jumped into the center with a microphone. "Wow! Talk about starting strong. On behalf of Nep's tunes and NepNep World, I would like to say thank you for you all making our first day a grand slam, and thank you for the talented dancers who have clearly come to win it big! I hope all of you have more energy to give—or maybe I should say share energy because our next entry is our Lady Uni with our adorable future CPU!"

A roar of surprise and applause resonated from everyone that caught Uni off guard. She could do nothing more but wave back from the total shyness she had accumulated.

"Hey, is Lady Euri going to be dancing, too?!" Shouted someone from the crowd.

"Huh, s-she's a little too young for that. I'm pretty sure she hasn't even learned how to walk yet. Then again, it has been a while since we got a good look at her," replied someone else within the crowd.

"But she looks so ready to try it. Just look at how excited and untamed she looks," replied someone else.

Uni turned her head to look at her niece. The people's comments held value as the pink-haired girl looked ready to blast out of her seat, all the while staring at the colorful lights and music screen in front of her. "Hey, maybe I should be the adult here and say that this is a bad idea. You don't even know how to walk yet," said the black-haired girl with reservations to her claims.

"Yeah!"

"Huh? Wait, is that a yes to dance or a no?" Asked Uni with white eyes and dark outlines.

Her answer was definitively answered when Euri started to beat on her safety buckle that kept her in her seat.

"Hmmm, this could be too dangerous…" uttered Uni.

"Nonsense. You can choose a steady song and dance with her to make sure she doesn't trip or fall on her bottom," replied the announcer girl from earlier, who had been a bit too close to hear Uni's private mumblings.

Uni was taken aback from the lack of privateness, but she allowed herself to ignore it for she had other more pressing matters. Her competitive thoughts then wormed their way into her mind. Technically, she would never be able to take home any top tier prize on her dancing skills alone. However, she could secure the win through cuteness, then she couldn't fathom a possibility where she would lose. Who wouldn't want to see the CPU baby of Nepstation dance with her aunt? She told herself that.

The music soon started to play. The type of music was funky and upbeat with a slow pace that would encourage even the novice of dancers to partake in. The whole crowd's roars slowly increased with each second due to the result of Uni picking up her niece from the stroller.

The pink-haired toddler had already started her groove, her kicks, and swings moving through the air with the beat of the music. Her face then sharply changed for a split second, feeling the weight of her own body vertically straightened once she touched the ground. This bodily memory reminded her when she pushed herself off the ground that one time, she saw a beautiful bird on the balcony. With the memory, a small amount of fear resonated within her from feeling unsupported properly between her and the ground.

"Don't worry, as if I would let you fall. All you need to worry about is showing these people how the future CPU can dance," replied the candidate.

The small toddler felt elated by the warm presence from her aunt, feeling like she was in a protective cocoon where no physical harm could reach her. Regardless, a mild discomfort ran through her small legs, since standing on her own weight was still a rare experience for her. It soon went away and a feeling of partaking in what her parents and everyone else did daily resonated within her.

Uni took the lead, her hips swinging to the beat. She used her hands to grip her niece's wrists, like a puppeteer controlling the strings on a doll. With every move Uni did, Euri would mimic the same motion with her face never showing discomfort.

The whole crowd could be heard gasping from this rare sight in front of them. Most of them had pulled out their phones and started to record the memorable bonding moment between aunt and niece.

"Yeah! Groove on, Euri!" Responded a far-off distant voice from the crowd around them.

"Euri! Euri! Euri!" The fawning chants from the people filled the air with joy and wonder, but unaware to all, they were producing an increasing amount of share energy—all directed to their little future CPU.

"You're getting the hang of it, Euri! I'm so proud of you," cried Uni, attempting to get her words across from the sea of thunderous cheers. Her niece gave her a bright smile that made Uni do a double-take. Not because the smile looked off, but because she was brightly smiling in the literal sense.

All noise in the air snuffed itself out of existence, and only the swelling radiance of light filled the dance zone.

The light was too much, completely blinding in its volume. Everyone, including Uni, covered their eyes for two seconds. When the light had finally extinguished, only the sounds of happy feet filled the air.

"N-no way…" Came the dead silent look from Uni that everyone else shared.

What stood before Uni was no longer a toddler of a year and a half old. Instead, a child of three years of age happily jumping and dancing on her own will alone, without any concern for the looks that everyone gave her.

"E-Euri?" Stammered Uni.

"Auntie. Auntie! Auntie Uni… dance more—dance more!" Giggled the older Euri. She then started to move her small legs that now harbored both power and knowledge of how to operate them from her watching everyone else. "Yay! Go fast!" Her legs took her around the area of the dance square she was in, her speed and energy never slowing down. The only expression on her face was happiness as she reveled in her new abilities that both felt new and old at the same time.

The sudden shellshock effect took some time to ware off from the people but eventually, they reignited with cheers.

"LOOK AT THAT GIRL GO!" Shouted a girl from the crowd.

"Lady Neptune might have a new challenger to see who has the most energy," laughed another.

Upon hearing Neptune's name, Noire's face also entered Uni's mind. "C-crap, they're going to kill me for this!" She dramatically wailed against the deafening cheers from the others.

**Sometime later- Basilicom**

Euri, now physically three years of age, sat on the couch in the living room of the Basilicom. In her hands, she held Mr. Bluewing with a firm grip. Her clothes that she wore had been changed courtesy of Uni, who shortly after the toddler's transformation, noticed that her shirt was too short, and her legs were longer. She now wore a Nepnep world giftshop shirt, jean shorts, and some sandals that Uni had bought.

Euri hadn't felt disturbed about this sudden spike in growth at all if only that was true for her parents that stood before her.

"How could this have happened? We were so careful about everything!" Noire dramatically pulled on her twin tails, her frustration on par with her crazed eyes.

Neptune sat down on the couch, with her eyes never leaving her daughter. "Gosh, a lot can change when you look away, huh? Euri, how do you feel?"

The daughter stopped marveling at her plushie, and deep comprehension of those words reached her. "Good, mommy."

This caused both parents to flinch at their daughter's response.

Neptune recoiled both with shock and heart-warming emotions in her heart. "Ah, neppers, to think that dealing with another growth wasn't going to be soon. Uni, you really have done a big oof with this one. We had our reason for not letting her be the center of attention." She directed her eyes at the last spot that she saw Uni, which was near the balcony doors, only to see that she wasn't there. "What the—where did she go?!"

"I'm over here." Uni was stationed on a chair facing the corner wall with her head down.

"Yikes, Noire, did you tell her to go to the corner? I know she did a big oof but that's cold big sister actions right there."

Noire, who had been overcome with emotion from her daughter's change, stared at her wife cluelessly. "Huh? I didn't tell her to go to the corner, Neptune!"

"No, she didn't. I deserve this as my punishment. I went behind both of you and took Euri out. It's because of me that she grew up again," she said grimly with her head down.

Neptune hit Noire's elbow to catch her attention. No words were needed as Noire could mentally tell what her wife wanted her to say.

Noire sighed, swallowing her exasperated state. "Uni… it's not your fault…"

"—she's right, it's actually these two's fault." From the hallway, Croire and Histoire emerged. Croire looked smug as she stared at the CPU parents.

"Excuse me!?" Shouted Noire.

"Why tell your sister an empty feel-good response when you can tell her that the real ones that should be putting themselves in the corner, are you both?" This time, disappointment painted the face of the rude fairy.

"Now what does that mean?" Asked Neptune with her arms folded.

"I had to be brought up to speed about the current events going on here by Histoire, and I got to say, I'm so appalled by both of you that I might be somewhat proud. Your oracle told me how both of you have been keeping Euri's presence on the down low, hoping that it might slow down the progression of your daughter's age. Nah, bad parenting there," mocked the tan fairy.

Noire stomped forward, her gaze similar to that of ten heat lamps. "Bad Parenting? Is it bad that we don't want our daughter to grow up too fast? Maybe we want to cherish the moments that we can have with her while she's still young?"

"That's not your choice to make—it's never been a choice to any CPU parent out there in all dimensions. The choice falls to the people and your daughter. You insanely starved the general public of allowing them to witness their future CPU go about her days, that when they were finally allowed to view her during a positive moment, all their faith burst out like water in a dam. You should already know what people do when they finally get to eat after so long, right? They chow down without restraint. That's what happened here—they poured all their faith out… without restraint. Of course, this should be said as well that a CPU kid needs to be ready for their growth spurt. This either tells me that her 'exp gauge' is either short or those people really did shoot tons of share energy at her."

"Shut up! Don't say it so dirty," barked the black-haired CPU.

"I just call it as I see it. I'm left curious about the little runt whether she is a prodigy or not. I mean, she went a good period without cellular growth around her first explosion, but maybe you two did cause all the build-up that resulted in making her progression faster, and she isn't a prodigy at all."

Uni removed herself from the wall and looked at the fairy. "So, if we shelter her, she'll only be more likely to grow up faster?"

"That's a simpler way to look at it. It's all about not starving the people from putting their faith in her because when they do get the chance, they will excessively make up for the lost time. Just look at me, when the Neptune that I know fails to provide my three meals a day, I can't guarantee that her wife's take-out dinner won't vanish along with mine."

She didn't know why, but Noire made a murderous face at the fairy in response to her counterpart that was absent to this conversation.

Histoire floated forward between all the others that were in the room. "I brought her because I did have concerns that bordered on theories from how you both were handling Euri's public presence. I don't think that keeping her away from the minds of the people would have been a good idea going forward into the future. I hate to bring this up but just look at all the buzz she's garnering online." Noire, Uni, and Neptune's faces sunk with shock from the various pages that Histoire flipped through her phone. "Everyone, places like Nepbook, Neppit, N-Chan, and even GI Informer are talking about Uni and Euri's eternal moment of fame."

Croire whistled sarcastically, already knowing the impact of the news coverage. "To think that all it took for them to get fired up was watching two dancing goofs."

Uni comically lowered her head, her hair covering her eyes. For Noire, one could tell her twin tails lowered from their position on her head.

"Hmm, we didn't mean to push the opposite of what we wanted. Noire! You know what we have to do," she urgently gripped her wife's arm.

Noire's face turned into a pout with a sour expression. "I guess my hands are tied. Fine, maybe we should fold and let events run their natural course. I just hope that this traction doesn't continue with a rampant pace that could cause another growth spurt," she said sorrowfully. She then felt her skirt being tugged on from below. When she looked down, she saw her three-year-old daughter looking at her with her adorable red eyes that spoke their own words.

"Papa, I want eat," softly pouted Euri.

"Eat?!" Noire's heart had skipped about twice within a second. Her daughter's first coherent response—albeit, a bit choppy—had filled her ears with joy. That wasn't the full extent of things as the mere pose of her daughter standing strongly on her own and looking at her with confident eyes pushed her to her breaking point. "Whaa! So cute! My little girl, how about we finish up the cauliflower cheese and pasta pieces then?"

Euri disobediently shook her head, making a face. "I want fries."

"Fries? I see you been spoiling her, Uni?" Laughed Neptune happily from also witnessing her daughter's backtalk.

"I see. If you want fries then you need to earn that first. How about picking up your toys from your room?" Challenged Noire. Her levels of surprise far exceeded what she imagined when Euri nodded at her and took off to her room.

"Look at her go!" Excitedly jumped Neptune.

Noire better managed her visible excitement, but she was still in the same mindset as her wife. Both of them bolted after their daughter, not wanting to miss out on a grand scene before them. A worthwhile scene indeed, as Euri actively ran around her room, picking up all the toys she had thrown the night prior when she and Neptune had been playing.

"Neptune… do we have no other choice than to let the people see our daughter?" Worriedly whispered Noire.

"It really does look that way. It seems we have two outcomes, we either keep her inside until eventually, she'll need to go outside—causing an explosion from all the pent up shares from the people directly hitting her or we can normalize her daily encounters to the point that Euri being outside isn't a press-stopping moment. That last one seems to be our safest bet. If we had kept her detached from the people longer, who knows how much she would have grown. At least she's still bite-size right now."

Noire sighed depressingly. "I'll choose the last choice then."

"Hey, look at the bright side, she looks like she can hold her own against a fork and spoon. We can even take her out without the need of the stroller, and I see a wardrobe overhaul incoming," smiled Neptune.

"Wardrobe? I guess this isn't too bad then," said Noire, who looked excited about getting Euri new outfits.

"I knew that would cheer you up, Nowa. If me taking photos in the past didn't hold any value, then now would be a different story. Maybe we should also take video of her too," suggested the purple-haired girl.

"You don't need to tell me twice. I'll get the camcorder and you fish out that camera of yours."

Neptune happily saluted in response to the almost 'army' style tone her wife had used. They both went opposite directions, fully planning to record every precious moment that they could get their hands on.

**To be honest, I don't have much to say at the current moment but still felt that I should put up some notes at the end. I hope that everyone is doing okay during these tensed times. My next chapter will be out at the end of this month and depending on how things go, I might be able to post it earlier. Thanks for reading! **


	17. Author's Update

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM AUTHOR: Hello everyone! It's been a few months since I posted any updates to both of my stories. I deeply apologize for that. The thing is, I've been dealing with some life stuff that has uprooted me from managing my stories. At the time, my inspiration and motivation have diminished as I deal with my current problems first. I hope to get back into my stories maybe sometime around November or December. I'm making this post to inform you all about the activity of my stories and that I haven't completely vanished from the fanfic community. Any future updates will be done on my profile page as I don't feel right forcing an Author's announcement into one of my stories and I think fanfiction frowns upon that. But, I want this message to reach as many of you that are still waiting for more of my stories. Sorry if any of you got hyped from the chapter notification and I'm not sure how long I'll have this up as a chapter. You are all amazing and thank you all for the patience.


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